Congratulations to Andrew Guy on his PhD completion!

Andrew Guy presenting at a
CCS 3MT heat

Congratulations to Andrew Guy on his PhD completion! Andrew's thesis is titled, "Computational approaches for examining the impact of protein structure and dynamics on malaria immunity." Andrew's main supervisor was Dr Paul Ramsland (50%), and co-supervised by Prof James Beeson and Dr Jack Richards, all of the Burnet Institute.

Andrew has had a number of first author publications during his doctoral work:

• Structural patterns of selection and diversity for Plasmodium vivax antigens DBP and AMA1. (May 2018)
• Proteome-wide mapping of immune features onto Plasmodium protein three-dimensional structures. (March 2018)
• Insights into the Immunological Properties of Intrinsically Disordered Malaria Proteins Using Proteome Scale Predictions. (Oct 2015)

'Universal key' approach to malaria points to new generation of vaccines

PhD student Kirsty Wilson is a co-author on both
papers on liver-stage infection by malaria parasites,
seen here presenting at a 2015 CCS symposium.

by Anne Crawford

Liver-stage infection by malaria parasites offers a key target for vaccines that aim to eradicate the disease. But the shape-shifting parasite has for decades defied concerted attempts by scientists to create a vaccine that will kill it in all its forms.

Monash researchers decided to review the field, hoping that insight and a fresh approach might point to a new solution. An unexpected finding they made in the research that followed could well be a pivotal first step in rationally designing a new generation of vaccines.

Understanding the design of effective particle-based vaccines against malaria

Malaria kills over half a million people
globally each year. Image: VectorBase

Malaria vaccine research has been ongoing since the 1980s with limited success. However, recent improvements in our understanding of the immune responses required to combat each stage of infection will allow for intelligent design of both antigens and their associated delivery vaccine vehicles/vectors. Synthetic carriers (also known as vectors) are usually particulate and have multiple properties, which can be varied to control how an associated vaccine interacts with the host, and consequently how the immune response develops.

Sarah Charnaud: Central Clinical School PhD student profile

See video: 40 sec

Sarah Charnaud is a Research Assistant and a Central Clinical School PhD student based at the Burnet Institute, researching Malaria. Sarah's research is focused on understanding the Malaria parasite and how it survives inside the human body. It invades red blood cells, where disease happens. Her research is particularly focussed on a previously unknown protein which is produced by the parasite and exported into the red blood cell itself.  See Sarah's profile: http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/education/profiles/charnaud.html and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tNO321GXU (Note, low sound so you'll need to turn up the volume to hear it.)