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Research
Computational Biology
- Fernando Pineda and his group collaborate with JHMRI faculty and others to apply Mathematics, Statistics and High-Performance Computing to solve a wide range of problems that are important for understanding and controlling Malaria.
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Diagnosis
- David Sullivan and Nirbhay Kumar, in collaboration with Peter Scholl and Applied Physics Laboratory investigators, are using hemozoin as a sensitive biomarker for laser desorption-MS detection of Plasmodium infection in both mice and humans.
Drug Development
- Drug resistance is a major problem in the treatment of malaria and Ernesto Freire's laboratory is working on the development of new strategies in which drug molecules are conferred with adaptive properties that allow them to maintain efficacy in the face of naturally existing polymorphisms and mutations associated with drug resistance.
Epidemiology
- Clive Shiff has been a strong proponent of the Macha Research facility because of our need to maintain focused on the disease and its epidemiology. This work also includes the study of the mosquito vectors as they constitute the source of infection and play a key role in the spread of this disease. Currently his work involves an integrated study of the incidence of malaria cases diagnosed at a series of 12 Rural Health Centres in the Macha area. His team record the number of cases of malaria diagnosed weekly in each of these clinics. He hopes to determine the role played by these centers in alerting the Health Authorities of cases diagnosed each week so they can plan control strategies that target areas where the cases are most common.
Immunology/Vaccine Development
- George Dimopoulos and his group are targeting parasite/vector interactions, with a particular interest in mechanisms of the mosquito's immune system implicated in killing parasites.
Molecular Parasitology/Cell Biology
- Peter Agre and his group are studying channel proteins in malaria-causing parasites. By studying mosquito aquaporins, the roles of water homeostasis in vector physiology and parasite transmission will be explored. Another major project is to investigate the functions of several aquaporin proteins in cerebral malaria.
Pathogenesis/Clinical Studies
- Fidel Zavala's work is using the Plasmodium yoelii system in mice to understand the nature of immune response to malaria infection.
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Structural Biology
- Jürgen Bosch and his team are exploring the structures of malarial proteins related to host-cell invasion and egress as well as to processes involved in the conversion of liver stage sporozoites into blood stage merozoites. The Bosch lab's ultimate goal is to apply structure guided drug design methods to identify small molecule inhibitors of the protein-protein interactions involved in these processes.
Vector Biology
- Environmental control is the focus of Douglas Norris and his laboratory colleagues. The group is using molecular population genetics to investigate the structure of mosquito populations, with the goal of understanding the flow of resistance to insecticides or parasite infection from one population to the next.
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