The malaria parasite has an active metabolism, importing nutrients, exporting metabolic wastes and generating a wide range of metabolic intermediates. We are using a combination of genetic, physiological and metabolomic approaches to understand the different processes, pathways and proteins involved, with the long term aim of identifying nutrient and metabolite transporters that are sufficiently different from those in humans to allow them to be exploited as antimalarial drug targets.

Students interested in working on this research project should contact Dr Giel van Dooren.