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