Rate My Professor James McCarthy

His research specializes in translational studies of infectious diseases using controlled human infection models. These involve deliberate infection of healthy volunteers with pathogens including Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria parasites, hookworms, and Streptococcus pyogenes to study disease mechanisms, diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs. A primary focus is malaria transmission, particularly gametocyte biology and transmission-blocking interventions assessed through human challenge trials, ex vivo analyses, CRISPR-edited parasites, proteomics, and microscopy. He developed the Brisbane human challenge system for antimalarial testing, now the preferred platform for investigational drugs, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and pharmaceutical companies. Key publications include Collins KA et al. (2020), 'A Plasmodium vivax experimental human infection model for evaluating efficacy of interventions,' Journal of Clinical Investigation 130:2920-2927; McCarthy JS et al. (2020), 'Safety and parasite clearance of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum infection: A pilot and a randomised volunteer infection study in Australia,' PLoS Medicine 17:e1003203; Collins KA et al. (2018), 'A controlled human malaria infection model enabling evaluation of transmission-blocking interventions,' Journal of Clinical Investigation 128:1551-1562; Webster R et al. (2025), 'Adjunctive ruxolitinib attenuates inflammation and enhances immunity in volunteers experimentally infected with Plasmodium falciparum,' Science Translational Medicine 17:826; and Hla TK et al. (2025), 'Establishing the lowest penicillin concentration to prevent pharyngitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes using a human challenge model (CHIPS),' The Lancet Microbe 6:5. His work has produced over 500 peer-reviewed publications advancing antimalarial and antiparasitic development.