'Signal' identified that enables malarial parasites to target blood cells
Contact: Elizabeth Crown
e-crown@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Northwestern University researchers have identified a key molecular "signal" that allows malarial parasites to release virulence proteins inside human red blood cells.
The investigators, led by Kasturi Haldar and N. Luisa Hiller, also found that the process by which the malarial parasite remodels red blood cells is far more complex than scientists previously had realized.
Haldar is Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Pathology and professor of microbiology-immunology and Hiller a sixth-year student in the Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Other key researchers on this study were Souvik Bhattacharjee; Christiaan van Ooij; Konstantinos Liolios; Travis Harrison; and Carlos Estrano.
Findings from the Northwestern study were published in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Science.