Molecular Parasitology and 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.

• Isabelle Coppens' program seeks to study the cellular events leading to Plasmodium metamorphosis and adaptation to the liver. Other investigations are conducted to identify host nutrients from the hepatic environment that are crucial for the successful replication of Plasmodium. This line of investigation may provide new therapeutic approaches against malarial infections by blocking the nutrient uptake pathways or usurping these pathways for delivery of parasiticidal compounds. 
  
  

• Rhoel Dinglasan’s lab is focused on understanding the role of protein-glycan interactions in parasite (ookinetes and sporozoites) recognition, attachment and invasion of host cells during transit from man to mosquito and back to man.   The underlying goal of this work will be to develop small molecular mimics as therapeutics which can break these processes and thereby stop parasite establishment in mosquitoes and humans.  His lab uses both P. falciparum and P. vivax parasites and works in collaboration with Isabelle Coppens to develop new infection/liver cell models to facilitate analysis. 

• 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.
   
• A major focus in Nirbhay Kumar's laboratory is investigating molecular mechanisms involved in the differentiation and development of sexual stages of the parasite leading to mosquito infection and malaria transmission with the goal of developing a transmission-blocking vaccine.
   
• Sean Prigge is focusing his research on essential metabolic pathways in the malaria parasite, particularly those required for the biosynthesis and modification of fatty acids.  Several enzyme cofactors such as pantothenate, lipoic acid, biotin and iron-sulfur clusters should be required for these metabolic pathways.  We are interested in these cofactors, how they are acquired, how they are used, and whether they are essential for the growth of malaria parasites.