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Philanthropy For Basic Science:
Malaria & Other Parasitic Diseases PARASITIC DISEASES, caused by single-cell (protozoa) or multicellular (helminth) organisms, undermine public health and economic well-being in vast portions of the world. Fostered by poor housing, faulty sanitation, and lack of access to adequate health care, they inflict a heavy burden on people living in developing countries, serving as both a cause and a consequence of poverty. The most deadly of the parasitic diseases is malaria, a mosquito-borne infection caused by Plasmodium parasites. Malaria produces more than 300 million illnesses and one million deaths per year, mostly in infants and young children, according to the World Health Organization. Ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where the illness accounts for one-fifth of all childhood deaths and stunts the educational and social development of many young survivors. Along with AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria has been labeled by the World Health Organization as one of the world’s most lethal infectious diseases. Recent years have seen heightened threats from parasitic illness. In Africa, multi-drug resistance has grown in Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the malaria parasites, and resistance to chloroquine, the most widely used antimalarial drug, is common. As a result, treatment in many countries has grown far more expensive and complex. At the same time, in developed countries, Toxoplasma, a related protozoan parasite that does little damage in healthy adults, has found a set of vulnerable hosts in people with immune systems weakened by HIV. These developments have helped focus researchers’ attention on the need to seek new therapeutic targets. At the same time, scientists have found new tools in the sequencing of the P. falciparum genome, completed in 1996, and the development of new technologies of computational biology and bioinformatics. The Ellison Medical Foundation is supporting researchers who are using these tools – and sometimes developing them, as well – to probe the basic biology of Plasmodium and Toxoplasma in order to block their pathogenic power.
Articles related to Malaria & Other Parasitic Diseases Refining Views of Virulence
Toxoplasma undergoes its sexual cycle in the cat, shedding millions of oocysts in cat feces. How big a role is played by sexual recombination? How big a role is played by self-mating — sexual reproduction without recombination? How much is due to clonal reproduction?
Related Projects David A. Fidock, PhD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New Scholar in GID 2001
Genetic Determinants of Chloroquine Resistance in Plasmodium falciparum Malaria | Joseph D. Smith, PhD
Colorado State University,then Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
New Scholar in GID 2001
Seeking Which Members of the Plasmodium falciparum Variable Adhesion Ligand Family are Responsible for Severe Malaria | Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD
The Scripps Research Institute
New Scholar in GID 2001
Functional Analysis of the Malaria Parasite Genome | Keith A. Joiner, MD
Yale University School of Medicine, then The University of Arizona
Senior Scholar in GID 2001
Elisabetta Ullu, PhD
Yale University School of Medicine
Senior Scholar in GID 2001
Development of New Genetic Tools to Identify Nutrient Uptake Pathways in Malaria Parasites | Richard M. Locksley, MD
University of California at San Francisco
Senior Scholar in GID 2001
Optimizing Immunity to Complex Pathogens In Vivo | Kirk W. Deitsch, PhD
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
New Scholar in GID 2002
DNA Replication and Var Gene Expression in Plasmodium falciparum | David S. Schneider, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine
New Scholar in GID 2002
Dissecting Malaria Vector-Pathogen Interactions Using a Drosophila-Plasmodium Genetic System | Kristin M. Hager, PhD
University of Notre Dame
New Scholar in GID 2002
Analysis of Membrane Trafficking Events in the Regulation of Organelle Biogenesis and Stability in Apicomplexan Parasites | Pradipsinh K. Rathod, PhD
University of Washington
Senior Scholar in GID 2002
Genomic Tools to Characterize Hypermutating Plasmodium falciparum | John C. Boothroyd, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine
Senior Scholar in GID 2002
Evolution of Virulence in Eukaryotic Pathogens | David S. Roos, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Senior Scholar in GID 2002
Designing and Mining Pathogen Genome Databases: The Apicoplast as a Novel Drug Target in Plasmodium Parasites...and Other Stories |
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