Drug Resistance, Antigenic Variation & Malaria Severity

我们的研究项目主要集中在四个主题领域：疟疾寄生虫的耐药性和抗疟治疗后影响临床结果的因素；[2]疟疾寄生虫避开人类免疫防御的手段；为什么最致命的疟疾寄生虫（恶性疟原虫）菌株对人类和其他灵长类动物的细胞具有不同的传染性；血红蛋白突变和红细胞多态性（如HbC、HbS和G6PD缺乏症）赋予儿童抗疟疾的本质。在每一个这些领域，我们都寻求研究进展，以提高对疟疾疾病过程的认识，从而支持开发新的抗疟疾化疗、诊断工具和疫苗。我们项目的研究活动是多学科的，包括疟疾地区的实地研究以及基础实验室调查项目。

Our research program focuses on four subject areas: [1] drug resistance of malaria parasites and the factors that affect clinical outcomes after antimalarial treatment; [2] the means by which malaria parasites avoid human immune defenses; [3] why strains of the most deadly malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) show different infectivities to the cells of humans and other primates; and [4] the nature of protection against malaria that is conferred to children by such hemoglobin mutations and red blood cell polymorphisms as HbC, HbS, and G6PD deficiency. In each of these areas we seek research advances that can improve the knowledge of disease processes in malaria and thereby support the development of new antimalarial chemotherapies, diagnostic tools, and vaccines. The research activities in our program are multidisciplinary and include field studies in malarious regions as well as programs of basic laboratory investigation.