Our research program focuses on four subject areas: (1) the nature ? of protection against malaria that is conferred to individuals carrying ? hemoglobin mutations and red blood cell polymorphisms including but not ? limited to hemoglobin C, hemoglobin S, hemoglobin E, alpha- and ? beta-thalassemia, and G6PD deficiency; (2) the nature of infant protection ? against malaria in the first few months of life, involving cooperative ? interactions between fetal hemoglobin and maternal-derived immune ? antibodies; (3) the molecular mechanisms by which malaria-protective ? polymorphisms reduce the expression of PfEMP-1, the main virulence factor ? of Plasmodium falciparum, on the surface of parasitized red blood cells; ? (4) the nature of microvessel inflammation and other pathogenic processes ? caused by the adherence of parasitized red blood cells to human ? microvascular endothelial cells and blood monocytes. In each of these ? areas we seek research advances that can improve the knowledge of fatal ? disease processes in individuals with malaria and thereby support the ? development of new antimalarial therapeutics and vaccines that aim to ? prevent death. The research activities in our program are ? multidisciplinary and include three field studies in malarious regions of ? Africa and Asia as well as programs of basic laboratory investigation. ? Methods:In vitro culture, immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation, ELISA ? method, cytoadherence assays under static and physiological flow ? conditions, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, electron ? microscopy, atomic force microscopy, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), ? automated DNA sequencing, hemoglobin typing by HPLC, mRNA expression ? analysis by microarray techniques, flow cytometry.
