![]() ![]() Symptoms can include high fever, body aches, diarrhea and vomiting, and the U.S. Each year, there are about 2,000 cases diagnosed here. Through these attempts, we anticipate gaining insight into the key pathways and processes essential for sexual development and transmission that can be targeted in the deadly malaria parasite.But malaria didn't completely disappear from the United States. “Next, we are gearing to perform a first-ever whole genome sexual-stage screen in Plasmodium falciparum, a study that will scan 5,000 mutants simultaneously. “We were able to identify sexual-stage genes and are now working on validating our findings,” Chawla added. Knowledge gaps in the biology of the malaria life cycle.” Parasite including transmission,” she said. Would be ideal to have a multiunit vaccine that targets different stages of the Transmission is a critical aspect of the malaria elimination strategy. (Graphic courtesy of Chawla)Ĭhawla says her research is important because blocking In my study, I proposed to use the Plasmodium mutants to uncover gametocyte biology of the malaria parasite.” Life cycle and sexual development of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. “Previous work in the Adams Lab achieved a much-needed breakthrough-they used transposons (or what we call jumping DNA elements) to randomly insert itself in the parasite genome, which generated about 38,000 mutants. “Weaknesses in parasite biology can be exploited to develop new therapies, but this calls for better tools and techniques,” Chawla said. Picked up during a blood meal and thus provide the crucial link forĬhawla’s journal article focused on interrupting Plasmodiumįalciparum transmission-and, thus, malaria-by targeting gametocytes. Parasites are asexually dividing and being cleared with antimalarialĭrugs-these are the non-replicating forms called gametocytes. The number of parasites in our body, making us feel very sick. Multiple rounds of division in the red blood cells, exponentially increasing Incubation, thousands of parasites enter the bloodstream where they undergo Molecular medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine. They remain dormant for a few days,” explained Chawla, a doctoral candidate in The parasite ride in with the saliva and quickly migrate to the liver where “When a mosquito bites an individual, the infective forms of The World Health Organization reported that in 2018, Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 99.7 percent of estimated malaria cases in the WHO African Region, 50 percent of cases in the WHO South-East Asia Region, 71 percent of cases in the Eastern Mediterranean and 65 percent in the Western Pacific. Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted to people through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Jenna Oberstaller, a postdoctoral scholar, and John Adams, a malaria expert, Distinguished USF Health Professor and director of the college’s genomics program. The article, published in March in the journal Pathogens, was co-authored by fellow COPHers Drs. Malaria parasite for her doctoral thesis project. The journal article “Targeting Gametocytes of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodiumįalciparum in a Functional Genomics Era: Next Steps.” She is currently investigating sexual stages of the deadly Public Health’s (COPH) Adams Lab, is lead author of Disease researcher working in the USF College of ![]()
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