Steve Taylor
Duke University, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum kills children across sub-Saharan Africa, and two threads run through this lab's work: how the parasite and the human red blood cell interact at the molecular level, and how to catch and treat infections early enough to protect the most vulnerable patients. One project dissects a parasite gene that appears to let the parasite overcome a famous natural defense, sickle-cell trait.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
malaria
Plasmodium falciparum
sickle cell trait
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2031
What they work on
- Test whether parasite overexpression of mutant Pfsa3 (PF3D7_1127000), a putative protein phosphatase, nullifies sickle trait's protection, by engineering transgenic Plasmodium falciparum lines expressing wildtype and mutant forms.
- Define Pfsa3's native cellular function, its interacting partners inside the parasite and in the host red blood cell, and how its expression alters pathogenic parasite phenotypes such as cytoadherence.
- Characterize Pfsa3 genetic variation in a molecular epidemiologic study of parasites from children in Western Kenya, and relate variants to clinical malaria disease.
- Determine the biochemical activity and three-dimensional structure of the Pfsa3 protein to establish whether it functions as a phosphatase.
- Randomize first-trimester pregnant women in Western Kenya and the DRC 1:1 to usual care or high-sensitivity rapid diagnostic test screening with artemether-lumefantrine treatment, and compare a composite of low birthweight, small-for-gestational age, preterm birth, fetal loss, and neonatal death.
- Measure the therapeutic efficacy and population pharmacokinetics of standard artemether-lumefantrine dosing given in the first trimester of pregnancy.
- Use trial data to model the incremental benefits of enhanced-sensitivity malaria diagnostics and alternate treatment regimens on the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
More about the research
The other runs a clinical trial testing whether sensitive malaria tests given very early in pregnancy can improve newborn health. Together they span parasite genetics and biochemistry at one end and field trials in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the other.
Why it matters
Severe childhood malaria remains a major killer, and understanding how parasites evade the protection that sickle trait normally provides could reveal actionable targets for future drugs or preventive measures. The pregnancy trial addresses newborn deaths directly: if screening women in the first trimester with a high-sensitivity rapid test and treating those infected reduces low birthweight, preterm birth, and neonatal death, it could change antenatal care policy in malaria-endemic parts of Africa.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Juliano
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Build a temporal deep learning surrogate, a neural network trained on simulation output, to predict how antimalarial drug policy changes would alter resistance and transmission in Kinshasa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Michel Guillot
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Collect prospective data at four surveillance sites across India to explain why stillbirth and neonatal death rates and their age patterns are unusually high, examining variation by gestational age and sex.
Ross Boyce
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Determine the feasibility and acceptability of focal mass drug administration with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) for household members of pregnant women, through a three-arm randomized pilot at a rural Ugandan health center.
The school
Duke University: 61 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 417 research doctorates a year.
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