Abstract
The zoonotic monkey malaria parasite P. knowlesi, is a significant and emerging cause of morbidity and mortality in South East Asia. Parasite proteins involved in invasion are critical for enabling infections in humans, but they are highly genetically diverse. This project will develop technologies to capture the genetic complexity of isolates from the field and study them under laboratory conditions using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system. The project will use high-throughput techniques to generate and analyse pools of transgenic parasites expressing allelic variants of invasion genes to allow us to establish their role in parasite host preference and virulence.
References
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