Reducing Malaria to its Constituent Parts

FIRST BITE:Courtesy of CDC/Jim GathanyFemale Anopheles gambiae mosquito feeding.A decade ago, scientists around the world recognized that despite malaria's tremendous disease burden, research on the topic had stagnated. With funding at low levels, robust molecular biology tools numbered few. Today, genome sequences for Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causing malaria, and for Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that spreads it, have already fundamentally changed the research landscape. Plasmodium

Written byEugene Russo

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Courtesy of CDC/Jim Gathany

Female Anopheles gambiae mosquito feeding.

A decade ago, scientists around the world recognized that despite malaria's tremendous disease burden, research on the topic had stagnated. With funding at low levels, robust molecular biology tools numbered few. Today, genome sequences for Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causing malaria, and for Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that spreads it, have already fundamentally changed the research landscape. Plasmodium is now the subject of more grant applications than any other parasite, according to Michael Gottlieb, chief of the parasitology and international programs branch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a funder for both genome projects. The Anophleles data have been slower to influence, Gottlieb says: "It's taking more time for it to have the same level of impact, but it's coming."

The P. falciparum genome-sequencing project, started in 1996, was burdened with technological hurdles and political issues. A draft ...

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