A/Prof Valery Combes obtained her PhD in 2001 from the Universite de la Mediterranee (Marseille, France) on the role of endothelial microparticles in the pathogenesis of thrombotic diseases.
A/Prof Valery Combes is a vascular biologist with 25+ years of experience and leadership in the field of extracellular vesicle biology. Her work has led to several highly cited seminal papers demonstrating the function and critical involvement of EVs in malaria using studies in patients, in vitro as well as animal models (Combes et al. J Clin Invest 1999, >600 citations, Combes et al. JAMA 2004, >160 citations, Combes et al. Am J Pathol 2005, >130 citations). Valery has published 89 manuscripts, has a h-index of 41 and 5771 citations (Scopus 01/24).

She is currently leading the Microvesicles and Malaria Research Group and is Associate Head of School Education & Students in the School of Life Sciences.

Valery demonstrated the role of extracellular vesicles in cell-cell communication and also used experimental cerebral malaria to demonstrate the role of extracellular vesicles in the pathogenesis of this disease and to explore the role of their cargo (proteins and microRNA). She is also studying the composition and role of EVs in human, using patient EVS in vitro models of the blood brain barrier and vascular lesions.
Valery has been instrumental in shifting the paradigm that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are not bystanders but true biological effectors notably in malaria infection which led to significant breakthroughs in the field.