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Research
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.
Diagnosis
- David Sullivan and his team have developed the ability to detect malaria antigens in urine. Work is now focused on the development of a urine dipstick test.
- 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.
Molecular Parasitology/Cell Biology
- Isabelle Coppens' program is focused on a little-studied area in malaria research: identifying factors in the hepatic environment that are crucial for the successful replication of Plasmodium. This line of investigation may provide new therapeutic approaches against malarial infections.
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.
- The research groups led by Gary Posner and Theresa Shapiro are developing new antimalarial drugs based on the biological and chemical mechanisms of artemisinin, a Chinese herbal remedy for malaria.
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.
- A major focus in Nirbhay Kumar's laboratory is investigating molecular mechanisms involved in the differentiation and development of sexual stages of the parasite.
Structural Biology
- Clara Kielkopf's laboratory is studying how RNA messages are processed using X-ray crystallographic techniques to determine the three-dimensional shapes of protein/RNA complexes. By comparing the shapes of P. falciparum with human protein/RNA complexes, they will be able to design new drug molecules that selectively affect this essential process in the malaria parasite.
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.
- Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena's team has developed a genetically-modified mosquito that is impaired for parasite transmission. They are currently investigating the molecular mechanisms by which the malaria parasite moves in the mosquito to allow transmission from one vertebrate host to another.
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