Abstract

Our research program focuses on four subject areas: (1) the nature of malaria protection conferred to individuals by red blood cell (RBC) polymorphisms including hemoglobin C, hemoglobin S, hemoglobin E, alpha-thalassemia and G6PD deficiency;(2) the nature of naturally-acquired immunity to malaria and how it is influenced by RBC polymorphisms;(3) the molecular mechanisms by which RBC polymorphisms reduce the expression of PfEMP1, the main virulence factor of Plasmodium falciparum, on the surface of parasitized RBCs;and (4) the parasite and host factors that influence the clearance of P. falciparum parasites in patients treated with the antimalarial drug artesunate. In each of these areas we seek research advances that can improve the knowledge of disease processes and antimalarial drug resistance mechanisms in patients with malaria and thereby support the development of new antimalarial therapeutics and vaccines that aim to prevent illness and death. The research activities in our program are multidisciplinary and include four field studies in malarious regions of Africa and Southeast Asia as well as programs of basic laboratory investigation at NIH-sponsored laboratories in Mali and Cambodia.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Investigator-Initiated Intramural Research Projects (ZIA)
Project #
1ZIAAI001000-08
Application #
8946410
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Niaid Extramural Activities
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
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  Publications

Hamilton, William L; Claessens, Antoine; Otto, Thomas D et al. (2017) Extreme mutation bias and high AT content in Plasmodium falciparum. Nucleic Acids Res 45:1889-1901
Tétard, Marilou; Milet, Jacqueline; Dechavanne, Sébastien et al. (2017) Heterozygous HbAC but not HbAS is associated with higher newborn birthweight among women with pregnancy-associated malaria. Sci Rep 7:1414
Adomako-Ankomah, Yaw; Chenoweth, Matthew S; Durfee, Katelyn et al. (2017) High Plasmodium falciparum longitudinal prevalence is associated with high multiclonality and reduced clinical malaria risk in a seasonal transmission area of Mali. PLoS One 12:e0170948
Longley, Rhea J; França, Camila T; White, Michael T et al. (2017) Asymptomatic Plasmodium vivax infections induce robust IgG responses to multiple blood-stage proteins in a low-transmission region of western Thailand. Malar J 16:178
Mukherjee, Angana; Bopp, Selina; Magistrado, Pamela et al. (2017) Artemisinin resistance without pfkelch13 mutations in Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Cambodia. Malar J 16:195
Morita, Masayuki; Takashima, Eizo; Ito, Daisuke et al. (2017) Immunoscreening of Plasmodium falciparum proteins expressed in a wheat germ cell-free system reveals a novel malaria vaccine candidate. Sci Rep 7:46086
Ataide, Ricardo; Ashley, Elizabeth A; Powell, Rosanna et al. (2017) Host immunity to Plasmodium falciparum and the assessment of emerging artemisinin resistance in a multinational cohort. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:3515-3520
Amato, Roberto; Lim, Pharath; Miotto, Olivo et al. (2017) Genetic markers associated with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine failure in Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Cambodia: a genotype-phenotype association study. Lancet Infect Dis 17:164-173
Fairhurst, Rick M; Dondorp, Arjen M (2016) Artemisinin-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum Malaria. Microbiol Spectr 4:
Pearson, Richard D; Amato, Roberto; Auburn, Sarah et al. (2016) Genomic analysis of local variation and recent evolution in Plasmodium vivax. Nat Genet 48:959-64

Showing the most recent 10 out of 94 publications