Our Research

Patterns of genomic variation at the level of individual specimens, populations, and species can inform the evolutionary history, recent demography, and current epidemiology of malaria parasites and vectors. We analyze variation in thousands of malaria parasite and mosquito samples from diverse geographies, with an emphasis on the Americas. 

As pathogen genomics moves from the realm of basic research to translational applications, we are developing novel laboratory protocols and bioinformatic analysis tools to enable cost-effective data generation and straightforward data interpretation by partner labs in malaria-endemic countries.

Clinical trials of interventions typically measure protection against symptomatic disease, or use PCR to measure time until first infection. We apply short-read PCR amplicon sequencing of highly diverse antigens to cross-sectional samples from clinical trials to fully characterize infection dynamics in participants and inform efficacy. 

Drugs and insecticides are intense agents of natural selection on parasite and vector populations. By sequencing contemporaneous or longitudinal collections of parasites and vectors, we can identify the mutations that directly confer resistance or that tune high-fitness resistance genotypes through compensatory or epistatic effects.

Antigenic diversity in malaria parasites is structured by humoral and/or cellular cross-protective immunity, and it is bounded by functional constraint. If better understood, these rules that structure antigenic diversity could inform the rational design of future vaccines. 

Before arthropod disease vectors take a blood meal, they inject saliva, and the hundreds of proteins in their saliva generate an antibody response. By characterizing the full breadth of this immune response, we can measure individual exposure to diverse vectors and the diseases they carry.