Unravelling The Tetraspanin Web In The Schistosome Tegument.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$309,537.00
Summary
Infection with the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni, is a major human ailment affecting almost 200 million people world wide and causing approximately 200 000 deaths per year. Current control efforts rely on anthelminthic drugs but, to sustain their effects, they must be applied for an indefinite period of time due to reinfection. This project will extend recent efforts to develop a vaccine for this organism and decrease the public health burden and mortality associated with infection.
SBP1 And Altered Structure And Function Of Malaria-infected Red Blood Cells
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$439,550.00
Summary
Malaria is a serious disease affecting half the world's population. Every year, more than a million people (mostly children) die as a result of being infected with malaria parasites. Our work will help us to understand how the parasites alter normal human red blood cells and make them stick in organs such as the brain. Preventing the red blood cells from becoming sticky with new drugs will open up new lines of attack to combat this devastating disease.
Genome-based Tools To Support Urogenital Schistosomiasis Control
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$429,644.00
Summary
More than 100 million sub-Saharan Africans have urogenital schistosomiasis, a disease that promotes malignant cancer and HIV/AIDS. Control depends on a single drug, making resistance an imminent threat. We will deliver new molecular tools to assess parasite genetic diversity and to prioritise a panel of anti-parasitic drug targets and vaccine candidates. These outcomes will deliver the next generation of interventions against urogenital schistosomiasis.
Pathophysiology Of Malaria-associated Lung Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$422,517.00
Summary
About 2 million people die each year from complications of malaria infection. A frequent, life-threatening complication of severe malaria is lung oedema. There is no specific treatment for the lung complications, which are poorly understood. There has been until now no good model system to study malaria lung complications. We have developed in mice an experimental model of malaria specifically to determine the mechanisms that cause lung pathology, which has never been done before. Such experimen ....About 2 million people die each year from complications of malaria infection. A frequent, life-threatening complication of severe malaria is lung oedema. There is no specific treatment for the lung complications, which are poorly understood. There has been until now no good model system to study malaria lung complications. We have developed in mice an experimental model of malaria specifically to determine the mechanisms that cause lung pathology, which has never been done before. Such experiments cannot be performed in humans for ethical and logistical reasons. We believe that pulmonary oedema is caused by products of the immune system and we will rigorously test this idea in our study. The aim is to learn more about the processes occurring in this disease so as to devise new treatment strategies.Read moreRead less
Exported Malaria Kinases And Red Blood Cell Remodeling
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,710.00
Summary
Malaria is a serious disease affecting half the world's population and every year, more than a million people (mostly children) die as a result of the infection. Our work will help us to understand how malaria parasites alter human red blood cells and make them stick in organs such as the brain. Preventing infected red cells from becoming stiff and sticky by developing new drugs will open up new lines of attack to combat this devastating disease.
Export Of Effector Proteins By P. Falciparum To The Infected Erythrocyte.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$196,582.00
Summary
Infection by the malaria parasite has lethal consequences for humans. In order to survive the parasite exports hundreds of proteins to commandeer the erythrocyte. A translocon that mediates such export has been identified and important questions remain unanswered. In this research, I aim to determine the function of one of the major translocon components for export of proteins to the erythrocyte (EXP2) and through this process determine if it is a viable target for anti-malarial drug development ....Infection by the malaria parasite has lethal consequences for humans. In order to survive the parasite exports hundreds of proteins to commandeer the erythrocyte. A translocon that mediates such export has been identified and important questions remain unanswered. In this research, I aim to determine the function of one of the major translocon components for export of proteins to the erythrocyte (EXP2) and through this process determine if it is a viable target for anti-malarial drug development.Read moreRead less
Functional Dissection Of Invasion Motor Regulation In Toxoplasma Gondii
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$500,396.00
Summary
The single-celled intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the cause of Toxoplasmosis and can be the basis of illness in immunocompromised individuals, eye disease and congenital birth defects. After host cell recognition Toxoplasma needs to activate the invasion machinery to establish a successful infection. We will reveal, at the molecular level, how Toxoplasma achieves this and then screen for drugs that inhibit this process. Compounds identified in this project could act as lead compounds ....The single-celled intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the cause of Toxoplasmosis and can be the basis of illness in immunocompromised individuals, eye disease and congenital birth defects. After host cell recognition Toxoplasma needs to activate the invasion machinery to establish a successful infection. We will reveal, at the molecular level, how Toxoplasma achieves this and then screen for drugs that inhibit this process. Compounds identified in this project could act as lead compounds to develop new treatments for Toxoplasmosis.Read moreRead less
Population Genomics Of Plasmodium Vivax In Papua New Guinea
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$597,238.00
Summary
Plasmodium vivax malaria is a serious global public health problem that has not received the attention it deserves, despite having serious clinical implications and presenting a major problem for regional malaria control programmes. In a study of people living in a malarious area of PNG, we aim to investigate the diversity of natural parasite populations, to better understand the possible effects of malaria control interventions on transmission and human immunity.
Functional Studies On Two Essential Rhoptry Proteins Of The Malaria Parasite
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$470,894.00
Summary
Malaria is one of the most important and deadly infectious diseases in the world, causing 250 million cases and nearly one million deaths each year. Traditionally, drugs and insecticides have been used to treat the disease and control its spread. They have become much less effective and there now exist untreatable cases of malaria. Alternative control measures are urgently needed. An understanding of how proteins essential to parasite survival operate may identify novel targets for therapeutic i ....Malaria is one of the most important and deadly infectious diseases in the world, causing 250 million cases and nearly one million deaths each year. Traditionally, drugs and insecticides have been used to treat the disease and control its spread. They have become much less effective and there now exist untreatable cases of malaria. Alternative control measures are urgently needed. An understanding of how proteins essential to parasite survival operate may identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention against this devastating disease.Read moreRead less