Overview

The complexity of the Plasmodium falciparum life cycle and its masterful ability to evade elimination by the host immune system are challenging our efforts to combat malaria. Our laboratory focuses on characterizing host-parasite interactions (i) during the establishment of infection in humans, (ii) in the various manifestations of severe malaria disease, but also (iii) in the long-term course of asymptomatic infections. To this end, we use samples from controlled human malaria infections (CHMI) or naturally infected malaria patients for genome-wide transcriptome profiling including polymorphic virulence genes from ex vivo parasites in combination with serological and physiological host data.