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Research Areas

Our research areas fall into four categories:
  1. Immunological correlates of immunity:
    • Determination of antibody levels to merozoite surface protein -1 (MSP-1) in children immunized with MSP-1 malaria vaccine candidate antigen.
    • Flow-cytometry measurements of circumsporozoite protein (CSP) specific cell mediated immunity
    • Evaluation of secreted malaria antigens (HRP2 and pLDH) for quantification of malaria parasite biomass.
    • Evaluation of a novel miniaturized multiple pathogen diagnostics platform
  2. Molecular identification of natural traits that confer protection to malaria:
    • Detection of hemoglobin variants by HPLC
    • Detection of alpha thalassaemia by multiplex PCR
    • Detection of G6PD deficiency by PCR and restriction length polymorphism
  3. Molecular genotyping of malaria parasite:
    • Determination of antigenic diversity within the immunological determinant site of CS protein in populations collected in cohorts receiving CSP malaria candidate vaccine
    • Determination of MSP1 and MSP2 allelic variants in populations collected in cohorts receiving CSP and MSP-1 malaria candidate vaccine
    • Determination of MSP-119 allelic variants in  Plasmodium falciparum collected in cohorts receiving MSP-1 malaria candidate vaccine
  4. Basic science research:
    • Studies on how malaria affects expression levels of complement regulatory proteins on red blood cells
    • Studies to determine whether bacteremia that is invariably seen in children with malaria is caused by hypocomplementemia due to sustained complement activation
    • Evaluating whether P. falciparum uses quorum sensing to auto-regulate parasite density
    • Identification and functional characterization of genetic polymorphisms, including the Swain-Langley and McCoy blood groups, of the human complement receptor 1 (CR1) gene that may influence the susceptibility to severe malaria in Kenya
    Flow Cytometry Lab

Fluorescence microscopy images illustrating RESA and propidium iodide staining of patient RBC. The RESA+, PI- RBC is a “foot print of previous infection”

 
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