May 11, 2014 Wellcome Trust Single-cell genomics could provide new insight into the biology of Malaria parasites, including their virulence and levels of drug resistance, to ultimately improve treatment and control of the disease, according to new research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health. The findings are revealed in a study by researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and published today in the journal Genome Research. Malaria infections commonly contain complex mixtures of Plasmodium parasites which cause the disease. These mixtures, known as multiple genotype infections (MGIs), can alter the impact of the infection due to parasites competing with one another and can drive the spread of drug resistance. MGIs are extremely common in regions with high levels of malaria infection but their biology is poorly understood. Up to 70 per cent of infections in sub-Saharan Africa are MGIs and we currently dont know how many genotypes are present and whether parasites come from a single mosquito bite or multiple mosquito bites says Shalini Nair, first author on the paper. Current genome sequencing techniques involve the chemical disintegration of samples of red blood cells from infected patients to obtain parasite DNA, which are then … Continue reading →