Cowman was awarded his Bachelor of Science from Griffith University in 1979. After this, he earned his PhD at WEHI in 1984, with David Kemp as his supervisor. His PhD thesis involved the cattle parasite Babesia bovis: in conjunction with other students they developed cloning, immunochemical and recombinant DNA techniques to analyze the population variation and protein production, then to produce proteins and antigens. This was followed by two postdoctoral projects involving genetic analysis at WEHI. Cowman then moved to America to take up a postdoctoral position to study Drosophila at the University of California, Berkeley for two years.
Career
In 1986 Cowman returned to the WEHI, and decided to concentrate on genes that make parasites resistant to drugs. He was supported by a Wellcome Trust Australian Senior Research Fellowship in 1988, then by three successive International Research Scholarships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1999 Cowman was appointed head of the Division of Infection and Immunity, which he still holds. Cowman held an Australia Fellowship from 2007 to 2012, and as of 2018 he held a Senior Principal Research Fellowship from the NHMRC. Cowman's research focus has been on protozoan infections, especially the cause of malaria, which kill over 500,000 people each year world-wide. He made significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms which the malaria parasites use to take over human cells, and how they evade the body's natural defenses. Cowman found that once the malaria parasites takes over red blood cells, it remodels them in such a way that they can reproduce without triggering the patient's immune system. He also investigated how the parasites build resistance to antimalarial drugs. These two lines of research have helped to guide the development of new drugs, supplemented by his team's monitoring the spread of drug resistance strains. He also conducts research into the genetic properties of the parasite, and he was the first researcher to develop a live genetically attenuated vaccine of P. falciparum. Some critics have commented that the WEHI group struggled to come to grips with the financial necessities of commercializing their research and funding "big science" projects. However, their technical achievements were universally acknowledged. Cowman has published extensively, and his work very widely cited: Google Scholar cites his h-index as 108, while Scopus gives it as 91.
