The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Dr Alyssa Barry

Details

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Division: Infection and Immunity

Research Overview

Malaria is an infectious disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The disease is caused by infection with protozoan parasites of the Plasmodium genus, via the bite of an infected anopheline mosquito. One of the major obstacles to controlling and eliminating malaria is a lack of understanding of natural malaria parasite populations.

Our research focuses on understanding the population biology of Plasmodium spp. to provide insights into disease transmission and naturally acquired immunity to malaria.

We employ a multidisciplinary approach including epidemiology, genomics, population genetics, immunology and bioinformatics. Most of our research is concentrated in the Asia Pacific, where we have strong collaborative links with researchers conducting large epidemiological surveys.

We are currently using these approaches to:

1. design diversity-covering approaches for leading malaria vaccine candidates
2. map parasite populations to help control malaria and identify the source of outbreaks
3. develop urgently needed molecular tools for malaria surveillance
4. understand how humans eventually acquire natural immunity to diverse malaria parasites

Gaining this essential insight into natural parasite populations and interactions with their hosts will lead to new and more effective vaccines and help focus malaria control efforts where they will have the greatest impact, while providing a strong basis upon which to monitor the efficacy of strategies to control and eliminate malaria.

Research Interests

• Modeling diversity-covering malaria vaccines from natural population data
• Population biology and epidemiology of two newly identified malaria species
• Var gene diversity and naturally acquired immunity to malaria
• Population genomics of Plasmodium spp. in Papua New Guinea
• NIH International Centre for Excellence in Malaria Research (Collaborator): Research to Control and Eliminate Malaria in SE Asia and SW Pacific

Selected Publications

1. Volkman, S.*, BARRY, A.*, Lyons, E.J., Thomas, S., Nielsen, K., Day, K.P., Wirth, D.F., and Hartl, D. Recent Origin of Plasmodium falciparum from a Single Progenitor. (2001) Science 293(5529): 416-7 *equal contribution
2. Hartl, D.L., Volkman, S.K., Nielsen, K.M., BARRY, A., Day, K.P., Wirth, D.F. and Winzeler,E.A. (2002) The paradoxical population genetics of Plasmodium falciparum. Trends in Parasitology 18(6): 266-272
3. BARRY, A., Leliwa, A., Choi, M., Nielsen, K., Hartl, D., and Day, K.P. (2003) Artifacts in sequence data from the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 130 (2): 143-7
4. BARRY, A.E., Leliwa-Sytek, A., Kasper, J., Hartl, D. and Day K.P. (2006) Variable SNP density in aspartyl protease genes of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Gene 376(2):163-73
5. BARRY, A.E., Leliwa-Sytek, A., Tavul, L., Imrie, H., Migot-Nabias, F., Brown, S.M., McVean, G., Day, K.P. (2007) Population genomics of the immune evasion (var) genes of Plasmodium falciparum. PLoS Pathogens 3(3): e34
6. BARRY, A.E., Schultz L, Buckee CO, Reeder JC, (2009) Contrasting Population Structures of the Genes Encoding Ten Leading Vaccine-Candidate Antigens of the Human Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8497. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008497
7. Reiling, L.., Richards, J.S., Fowkes, F.J.I., BARRY, A.E., Triglia, T., Chokejindachai, W., Michon, P., Tavul. L.., Siba, P.M., Cowman, A.F., Mueller, I., Beeson, J.G. (2010) Evidence that the erythrocyte invasion ligand PfRh2 is a target of protective immunity against Plasmodium falciparum malaria J. Immunol. 185(10):6157-67
8. Schultz, L. Wapling, J., Mueller, I., Senn, N., Ntsuke, P.O., Buckee, C.O., Nale, J., Kiniboro, B., Siba, P.M., Reeder, J.C. and BARRY, A.E.. (2010) Multilocus haplotypes reveal variable genetic diversity and population structure in Papua New Guinea, a region of intense perennial transmission. Malaria Journal 9: 336
9. BARRY, A.E.*, Chen, D.*, Smith, T.A., Petersen, I., Migot-Nabias, F., Deloron, P., Ndiaye, D., Sarr, O., Mboup, S., Marsh, K. Daily, J.P., Tavul, L., Imrie, H., Day, K.P. (2011) A Molecular Epidemiological Study of var Gene Diversity to Characterize the Reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum in Humans in Africa. PLoS ONE 6(2) e16629
10. BARRY AE, Trieu A, Fowkes FJ, Pablo J, Kalantari-Dehaghi M, Jasinskas A, Tan X, Kayala MA, Tavul L, Siba PM, Day KP, Baldi P, Felgner PL, Doolan DL. (2011) The stability and complexity of antibody responses to the major surface antigen of Plasmodium falciparum are associated with age in a malaria endemic area. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2011 Aug 8. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 21825279

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Current Laboratory Members

Faculty Member: Alyssa Barry, BSc(Hons) Tas PhD Melb

Postdoctoral Fellow: Mark Schultz, BSc Hons Deakin, PhD CDU

Research Assistant: Charlie Jennison, BSc Leeds, MSc LSHTM

Honours Student: Digjaya Utama, BMedSci Indonesia/Monash

Honours Student: Elishiba Malau, BSc UPNG

UROP Student: Benita Knox

Visiting Scientist: Valentine Siba, BEd, Hons (Biol. Sci.) UPNG