Tropical Parasitology

Laboratory Head  

Dr Kathy Andrews

Summary

There is currently no licensed malaria vaccine and most of the drugs that are use to prevent and treat malaria are becoming less effective due to parasite drug resistance. We are addressing this major health issue by utilising a range of modern techniques in molecular, biochemical and cellular biology to study Plasmodium parasites and to identify new antimalarial drugs and drug targets.

Conditions researched

• Malaria

Current research

• Development of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as new antimalarial drugs
• Characterising the role of class I and II HDACs on malaria parasite transcription and parasite intra-erythrocytic development.
• Investigating the antimalarial activity of clinically utilised HIV drugs (aspartic protease inhibitors) and their mode of action in malaria parasites.
• In vitro and in vivo antimalarial pharmacodynamic studies on natural product derived compounds. 
• Evaluation of novel anti-malarial agents

Staff

Laboratory Head: Dr Kathy Andrews

Research Assistant: Maria Nguyen (GU)

PhD students: Thanh Tran, Linh Tran

Honours student: Annaliese Woods

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following funding agencies:

• Australian Research Council (ARC)
  
• Medicines for Malaria Venture
  
• Griffith University Research Grant (GURG) scheme  

Collaborators

Professor David Fairlie, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ

Associate Professor Zbynek Bozdech, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dr James McCarthy, QIMR

Dr Tina Skinner-Adams, QIMR

Dr R Price, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin

Professor Ron Quinn, Eskitis Institute, Griffith University

Dr Rohan Davis, Eskitis Institute, Griffith University

Associate Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen, Eskitis Institute, Griffith University