Duraisingh Lab
Principal Investigator: Manoj T Duraisingh
Institution: Harvard Global Health Institute (Boston, MA)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Malaria continues to be a major scourge of humanity, and is caused by infection of red blood cells (RBCs) by the protozoan Plasmodium spp. parasites. Plasmodium falciparum can achieve high parasite biomasses in the circulation causing severe morbidity and mortality. Blood-stage parasites have a strict cellular tropism for RBCs, interacting with numerous molecular determinants in the RBCs for productive infection and transmission. Parasite polymorphisms that allow parasites to propagate and persist in different types of RBCs present a major challenge to malaria control and elimination. This includes the ability of the invasive merozoite forms to use different receptors on RBCs, known as invasion pathways. We will leverage the power of forward genetics to identify the molecular determinants mediating two key features of the cellular tropism of P. falciparum: RBC age and RBC species preference. We have found that different P. falciparum strains vary significantly in these preferences, and hypothesize that the parasite polymorphisms underlying this variation are critical to the emergence and persistence of P. falciparum in human populations, and are key determinants of…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01AI165755-05: Malaria parasite determinants of host cell tropism (2026)
- 5R01AI168163-05: Molecular basis of antimalarial drug resistance in Plasmodium vivax (2026)
- 3R01AI168163-05S1: Molecular basis of antimalarial drug resistance in Plasmodium vivax (2026)
- 5R61AI187114-02: Continuous in vitro culture and genetics of Plasmodium vivax in a bespoke blood cell bioreactor (2026)
- 3R01AI168163-04S1: Molecular basis of antimalarial drug resistance in Plasmodium vivax (2025)
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