WEHI Wednesday Seminar hosted by Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
 

Professor Wai-Hong Tham
Laboratory Head, Infectious Diseases & Immune Defence division – Infection, Inflammation & Immunity Theme, WEHI

Blood and guts: blocking malaria parasite entry and transmission

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIWednesday

Including Q&A session
 

Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest parasitic diseases, affecting millions of people worldwide. Malaria parasites are transmitted from person to person through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. They are exquisitely adapted for survival within the human and mosquito host. Malaria parasites enter human red blood cells to grow and replicate. Within the mosquito, malaria parasites undergo fertilisation and further development into sporozoites which are transmitted to humans through a mosquito bite. We want to understand mechanisms of malaria parasite entry and fertilisation using molecular parasitology with structural biology approaches and antibody discovery platforms. Our work is focused on developing novel interventions to stop infection and transmission of the malaria parasites.

Wai-Hong Tham received her PhD from Princeton University and is an Elizabeth Blackburn NHMRC Investigator L2. She holds a joint appointment at the Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and at the Research School of Biology at ANU. Her lab has made fundamental discoveries in novel host-pathogen interactions and examined their molecular and structural mechanisms to drive rational design of new therapies against infectious diseases such as malaria and COVID-19.

All welcome!