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he private life of Malaria parasites: sophisticated strategies for survival and reproduction?| old_uid | 8107 |
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| title | he private life of Malaria parasites: sophisticated strategies for survival and reproduction? |
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| start_date | 2010/02/05 |
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| schedule | 11h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | We work on the evolution and ecology of parasite phenotypic plasticity and life-history strategies. Our research focuses on malaria (Plasmodium) parasites, which cause some of the most serious infectious diseases of humans, livestock, companion animals and wildlife. There is a great deal of research into the genetics, cell and molecular biology, and immunology of these parasites – but conspicuously less from a whole-organism (evolutionary) perspective – and malaria parasites remain a step ahead of medical science.
We employ an interdisciplinary approach to explain the strategies that parasites have evolved to maximize their in-host survival and between-host transmission. One of our current interests lies in understanding how, why, and when parasites alter the production of sexual (transmission) stages and their sex ratio according to changes in their in-host ecology.
Research at the interface between biomedicine and evolutionary ecology offers huge advances to both fields. This is central to successful interdisciplinary research, and our work is motivated by two aims:
1. By using malaria parasites to test the predictions and assumptions underlying evolutionary theories we can reveal the generality and explanatory power of an evolutionary ecology approach.
2. Explaining how natural selection has solved the complex problems faced by parasites and pathogens as they progress through their lives is important for medical science. |
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| responsibles | Lebreton |
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