Development of analysis pipeline for identification of biomarkers in p.falciparum infected plasma.

The Molecular Pathogenesis and Biomarkers Section applies functional genomics and molecular immunoparasitology tools to understand malaria pathogenesis in naturally exposed individuals. Our goal is to identify malaria disease biomarkers and candidate vaccine antigens that may be useful in developing new interventions. Currently, we utilize high-resolution mass spectrometry to provide a chemical fingerprint of thousands of metabolites and proteins in plasma samples. These high-resolution metabolomics and proteomics approach could help us understand disease. We aim to implement mass spectrometric methods to identify protein-protein complexes.  This work will involve utilizing high-resolution mass spectrometry, conducting experiments on the bench, analyzing samples by mass spectrometry and summarizing results.

The mentor will be Patricia A. Gonzales Hurtado, Ph.D., staff scientist at LMIV.