An integrated platform to dissect multistage signalling molecules in malaria parasites

Malaria threatens over 400 million people globally and results in around 0.5 million deaths annually, thereby continuing to be a major public health problem. Malaria is caused by the unicellular Plasmodium parasite, which completes its complex lifecycle in a mosquito vector (sexual) and a mammalian host (asexual). While the asexual stage causes symptoms of the disease in the host, sexual stage development is required for disease transmission. Targeting proteins essential for both asexual and sexual stage development would provide a multi-pronged tool to simultaneously cure and prevent disease transmission. Exploiting a combination of tools I recently developed and innovative proteomic methods, my goal is to identify signalling molecules that are crucial for both host cell and mosquito infection by the malaria parasite. Not only will this research discover previously unrecognised therapeutic targets but also provide new insights into basic malaria parasite biology.