Determining the function of parasite proteins at the membrane skeleton of malaria-infected red blood cells

Funded Activity Summary

Malaria is a serious disease that frequently kills its victim after a bout of high fever and coma. The most vicious form of malaria is caused by a minute parasite called Plasmodium falciparum that lives inside red blood cells. As these parasites grow, they make some dramatic renovations to their red blood cell home that make it become very stiff and sticky. Instead of flowing around the body like normal red blood cells, the infected cells become trapped in small veins and can no longer carry out their normal job. The ability of the parasite to make red blood cells stiff and sticky is what makes this type of malaria so dangerous, particularly when red cells get stuck in the brain. We plan to look at certain proteins that malaria parasites place on the walls of red blood cells because we think this is what makes them stiff and sticky. We hope this will help with the development of and urgently required ways to cure malaria.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2001

End Date: 01-01-2003

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $392,036.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Humoural immunology and immunochemistry

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Anaemia | Cell adhesion | Cerebral malaria | Falciparum malaria | Membrane mechanics | Modification of red blood cells by malaria parasites | Parasitic diseases | Plasmodium falciparum | Red blood cell membrane skeleton | Vector-borne diseases

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