Malaria Pathogenesis and Clinical Immunity

我们的研究项目集中在四个主题领域：(1)携带血红蛋白突变和红细胞多态性的个体对疟疾的保护性质，包括但不限于血红蛋白C、血红蛋白S、血红蛋白E、α -和β -地中海贫血以及G6PD缺乏症；(2)婴儿在生命最初几个月对疟疾的保护性质，涉及胎儿血红蛋白和母体来源的免疫抗体之间的合作相互作用；(3)疟疾保护多态性降低被寄生红细胞表面恶性疟原虫主要毒力因子PfEMP-1表达的分子机制；(4)寄生红细胞粘附人体微血管内皮细胞和血液单核细胞所引起的微血管炎症等致病过程的性质。在这些领域中，我们寻求研究进展，以增进对疟疾患者致命疾病过程的了解，从而支持开发旨在预防死亡的新的抗疟疾疗法和疫苗。我们项目的研究活动是多学科的，包括在非洲和亚洲疟疾地区的两个实地研究以及基础实验室调查项目。

Our research program focuses on four subject areas: (1) the nature of protection against malaria that is conferred to individuals carrying hemoglobin mutations and red blood cell polymorphisms including but not limited to hemoglobin C, hemoglobin S, hemoglobin E, alpha- and beta-thalassemia, and G6PD deficiency; (2) the nature of infant protection against malaria in the first few months of life, involving cooperative interactions between fetal hemoglobin and maternal-derived immune antibodies; (3) the molecular mechanisms by which malaria-protective polymorphisms reduce the expression of PfEMP-1, the main virulence factor of Plasmodium falciparum, on the surface of parasitized red blood cells; (4) the nature of microvessel inflammation and other pathogenic processes caused by the adherence of parasitized red blood cells to human microvascular endothelial cells and blood monocytes. In each of these areas we seek research advances that can improve the knowledge of fatal disease processes in individuals with malaria and thereby support the development of new antimalarial therapeutics and vaccines that aim to prevent death. The research activities in our program are multidisciplinary and include two field studies in malarious regions of Africa and Asia as well as programs of basic laboratory investigation.