Malaria is a devastating disease which impacts on the lives of about half of the world’s population. Malaria parasites infect and grow within red blood cells, replicating asexually within a membrane-bound parasitophorous vacuole. In a process called egress, the vacuole and host cell membranes eventually rupture to release merozoites which invade new cells, disseminating the infection and leading to clinical disease. Our research focuses primarily on the molecular mechanisms involved in invasion and egress by Plasmodium falciparum, the agent of the most dangerous form of malaria. We wish to understand the molecular mechanisms by which the parasite enters and exits its host cell, and we are working to dissect the structural changes that occur in the host erythrocyte and at the parasite surface during invasion and egress. In collaboration with chemists and structural biologists, we aim to translate this information into health benefits by seeking to identify drug-like inhibitors of enzymes and other parasite molecules involved in egress and invasion, and promote their development as potential antimalarial drugs. Our work has also provided information on how to improve the design of much-needed malaria vaccines based on merozoite surface proteins. Our work is currently funded by the Francis Crick Institute, LifeArc, and the Wellcome Trust.

I am on the Editorial board of the journals PLoS Pathogens, Molecular Microbiology and Eukaryotic Cell, and sit on the Executive Committee of the EVIMalaR European Network of Excellence (www.evimalar.org).