Morgan Martin Defends Thesis on Artemisinin resistance in West Africa
Please join us in celebrating Morgan’s dissertation defense seminar! BPH students, faculty, and guests are invited to attend.
A graduate student in the Wirth Lab, Morgan is presenting on “Exploring Pfkelch13-mediated ART resistance in a West African genetic context” on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
Morgan’s thesisuses CRISPR–Cas9 editing of contemporary Senegalese parasites, ring‑stage survival assays (including a novel Nanopore‑assisted RSA), standard drug‑susceptibility testing, and competition assays to show that key Pfkelch13 mutations such as R561H and M579I can confer high artemisinin resistance with little fitness cost in a West African background. Together, these findings demonstrate that Senegal’s parasite population is genomically “resistance‑ready” and provide a general framework for proactive, genome‑engineered resistance risk assessment in African settings.
IID is rooting for you Morgan, and we wish you the best on May 6!
