RESEARCH FIELD

Parasitology

Parasitology studies organisms that live in or on a host organism and derive nutrients at the host expense, with research focused on pathogens responsible for enormous global disease burden. Malaria parasites kill hundreds of thousands annually despite decades of control efforts; CRISPR-based genetics in Plasmodium is revealing drug resistance mechanisms and essential gene functions for target-based drug design. Soil-transmitted helminths infect over a billion people in tropical regions, stunting child development; genomics of these worms is identifying vaccine candidates. The RTS,S and R21 malaria vaccines developed after decades of research are now deployed in sub-Saharan Africa. Single-cell transcriptomics is mapping the diversity of parasite life cycle stages and the host immune responses they evade, guiding next-generation transmission-blocking vaccines.