It all begins with Alexis’ visit to IUSM in 2022. In collaboration with Alexis’ lab at Seattle Children’s Hospital, we are developing new approaches to decipher new biological processes critical for Plasmodium parasite replication in the mosquito and human host that antimalarials can target.

Since January 2022, we have partnered with Dr. Ines Bento in Maria’s lab at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisboa, Portugal, to study the atypical and fascinating nuclear and cellular division of Plasmodium parasites during liver-stage infection.

Enrolling in the 2022 RAPID program (Raising Advancement and Parity for Infectious Disease Researchers) gave me the honor and chance to become Elizabeth’s mentee and learn from her scientific leadership experience. In association with Jaeson Calla, Assistant Project Scientist in the Winzeler Lab, we are investigating the mode of action of promising antimalarials using our expansion microscopy tool kits.

In partnership with Imran Ullah, Research Associate in Wirth’s Lab, we investigate the molecular factors involved in endocytosis during the intraerythrocytic development cycle of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite using Ultrastrcuture expansion microscopy.