Landau initially studied medicine, obtaining her medical qualifications in Paris in 1958 and a certificate in tropical medicine in 1963.[2] She changed to focus on parasitology research, joining the lab of Lucien Brumpt in 1964 as a research assistant, and a year later relocating to Alain Chabaud's group at the MNHN.[3][2] She was promoted in 1966 to senior lecturer and made group head of studying the Plasmodium genus.[2][4] She briefly worked in London in the 1960s in the group of Cyril Garnham at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where she met and begun collaborating with Wallace Peters and Robert Killick-Kendrick.[3][5] During a research trip to the Central African Republic in 1964/5 Landau isolated and described the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi (naming it after her supervisor) from local Thamnomys rutilans thicket rats.[6][7][8] She brought these samples with her to London, and together with Killick-Kendrich they isolated and identified another new rodent malaria species.[9] The species was similar to Plasmodium berghei, and it was named Plasmodium yoelii in homage to the malarial researcher Meir Yoeli.[10] To this day both species are used extensively in malaria research.[11][4][12][13] Peters, Landau and Killick-Kendrick styled themselves as the 'plasmodiacs'.[3]
When visiting Elizabeth U Canning at Silwood Park in the 1970s she snuck a royal python over to England on her flight. The snake was reportedly kept as a pet in the department for many years.[14] Also in the 1970s, Landau visited the Wellcome Parasitology Institute in Belém to study the recently discovered Saurocytozoons with Ralph Lainson.[15] It was after the respected British parasitologist that Landau later named the Lankesterellidae genus Lainsonia.[15]
She submitted her PhD thesis in 1972, entitled 'La diversité des mecanismes assurant la perennite de l'infection chez les sporozoaires coccidiomorphes [The variety of mechanisms that ensure the persistence of infection in coccidiomorphic sporozoites]'.[2] She advanced to co-director of the lab in 1987 before becoming full director of the lab of protozoology and comparative parasitology in 1989.[2] In 1994 she was promoted to a full professor.[2] Her and Chabaud were awarded the 1999 Émile Brumpt prize for their contributions to parasitology.[2]
^Lainson R, Baker JR (December 2011). "ROBERT RENÉ KILLICK-KENDRICK MPhil, PhD, DSc, FSB 20 June, 1929 - 22 October, 2011". Revista Pan-Amazônica de Saúde. 2 (4): 51–55. doi:10.5123/S2176-62232011000400008. ISSN2176-6223.
^Landau I (March 1965). "Description of Plasmodium chabaudi n. sp., Parasite of African Rodents". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. 260: 3758–61. PMID14339659.
^Carter R, Walliker D (June 1975). "New observations on the malaria parasites of rodents of the Central African Republic - Plasmodium vinckei petteri subsp. nov. and Plasmodium chabaudi Landau, 1965". Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 69 (2): 187–96. doi:10.1080/00034983.1975.11687000. PMID1155987.
^Landau I, Killick-Kendrick R (January 1966). "Rodent plasmodia of the République Centrafricaine: The sporogony and tissue stages of Plasmodium chabaudi and P. berghei yoelii". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 60 (5): 633–649. doi:10.1016/0035-9203(66)90010-1. PMID4163669.
^Aliprandini E, Tavares J, Panatieri RH, Thiberge S, Yamamoto MM, Silvie O, et al. (November 2018). "Cytotoxic anti-circumsporozoite antibodies target malaria sporozoites in the host skin". Nature Microbiology. 3 (11): 1224–1233. doi:10.1038/s41564-018-0254-z. PMID30349082. S2CID53026551.
^Petithory JC, Chippaux A (2004). "[The 2004 International E. Brumpt Prize]". Bulletin de la Société de Pathologie Exotique. 97 (5): 375–9. PMID15787273.
