ProfessorTania De Koning-Ward

Malaria is one of the world's most devastating human health problems caused by parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium. Each year, there are around 229 million cases of malaria globally, with an estimated 608 000 deaths. The current malaria vaccines have very modest efficacy against severe malaria and clinical malaria and thus malaria control continues to rely very heavily on prompt treatment of patients to prevent severe disease and death. However, the emergence of parasites resistant to the current front-line treatments creates an urgent, and currently unmet need to discover new antimalarials with novel modes of action, and immunomodulatory therapies that improve clinical outcomes. To help guide both rational target and therapy development, it is critical to understand the molecular pathways that underpin successful Plasmodium infections and the disease that they cause.

My research program aims to investigate at the molecular level, key parasite-host interactions that enable malaria parasites to thrive and survive in their host cells and cause disease. My lab utilises the most advanced genetic engineering techniques to modify Plasmodium genes to dissect their function. The use of both human and rodent transgenesis systems enables the characterisation of proteins in the clinically relevant human malaria parasite, which is predominantly cultured in blood cells in vitro, and the dissection of the functional significance and contribution of these proteins to pathogenesis and immunity using in vivo models of malaria infection. By understanding the key mechanisms by which parasites are able to survive within their host and cause disease, my research program aims to discover new drug targets that can be used to prevent the large morbidity and mortality associated with malaria infections.

Knowledge Areas
Infectious diseases, microbiology, parasitology, immunology, molecular biology, cellular biology, biochemistry, functional genomics, genetic
engineering, pathogenesis, virulence, animal models of disease, host-pathogen interaction, drug screens, extracellular vesicles

The lab is now recruiting Honours, Masters and PhD Students to work on the following project areas. Please email expressions of interest to Prof de Koning-Ward but also check out eligibility requirements and scholarships at 'how to apply for a research degree'

Projects:

1) Dissecting how malaria parasites obtain nutrients essential to their survival
2) Defining the proteomes of organelles critical to malaria invasion and host cell remodelling and the functions of these essential respective
proteins.
3) Screening for drugs that block key cellular processes (eg. nuclear import) and delineating their mode of action
4) Defining how extracellular vesicles are generated by malaria-infected red blood cells to facilitate immune-modulation, pathogenesis and parasite
transmission