A Trojan horse to combat malaria
Our goal is to develop an anti-malarial Trojan horse that will deliver a chemical payload to the malaria parasite that it cannot avoid, thus limiting the potential for resistance.
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Humans are in an arms-race with malaria where every new drug developed is eventually rendered ineffective by emerging drug resistance. This is even true of the latest artemisinin-based therapies that remain a last line of defence for many malaria infections. Working closely with the Maier group within the Research School of Biology we have employed synthetic and medicinal chemistry to understand the molecular mechanisms of primary metabolite transport within the malaria parasite and use this information to exploit essential metabolic processes. This project will harness this knowledge to develop an anti-malarial Trojan horse that can deliver a chemical payload to the malaria parasite that it cannot avoid, thus limiting the potential for resistance.