Teasing out malaria’s genetic secrets
Every year, malaria infects more than 250 million people, and more than 1 million die from the parasitic disease. For decades, doctors have treated malaria with chloroquine — an effective, inexpensive remedy. But now, the parasite is becoming resistant to chloroquine. Resistance has also begun to develop against artemisinin, a newer drug that is also widely used.That worries many people, including Jacquin Niles, MIT assistant professor of biological engineering. “Outside of artemisinin and chloroquine, there really isn’t a huge arsenal for effectively treating malaria,” he says.Developing new drugs is essential, but the parasite that causes malaria is notoriously difficult to study because of its bizarre system of gene regulation. However, Niles has developed a new technique that he believes will make it easier to pin down gene functions and identify potential drug targets.“Once we have a map of where the vulnerabilities are in the parasite’s arsenal, we can think about...