Clinton Lau in Matt Higgins' group, working with groups in Denmark and Tanzania, has characterised a family of variant proteins in the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, believed to be responsible for severe childhood malaria.
By identifying conserved features of the protein family that are required to make the infection so deadly, the group can begin to design therapeutics that might prevent this form of malaria.
Many human infective parasites express surface protein families that are highly variable, avoiding immune detection, but that also have exquisitely conserved molecular features enabling them to maintain the necessary interaction with their host targets.
Read more (Department of Biochemistry website)