Malaria parasite has a wonderfully complex development that involves 15 different forms, disguising the host defence arsenal, to complete its life cycle. Many of these forms reside in different cellular environments and contain stage-specific proteins and functionally specialized organelles, which are produced and disposed off as and when required. Additionally, the parasite not only breaks down host cellular contents to obtain nutrients, it also enslaves many host proteins for its benefit. My lab is investigating the ubiquitin proteasome and lysosomal pathways of malaria parasites, which likely regulate parasite development and disease pathogenesis through degradative and non-degradative functions. We combine gene knock-out/knock-in/knock-down approaches with biochemical and cell biology methods in our studies on both P. falciparum and in vivo models of malaria. We also have a high throughput screening assay for anti-malarial drug discovery.

Selected Publications

Divya N. Nair, Rajesh Prasad, Neha Singhal, Manish Bhattacharjee, Renu Sudhakar, Pushpa Singh, Subramonian Thanumalayan, Uday Kiran, Yogendra Sharma and Puran Singh Sijwali. (2018) A conserved human DJ1-subfamily motif (DJSM) is critical for anti-oxidative and deglycase activities of Plasmodium falciparum DJ1. Molecular & Biochemical Parasitology. 222:70-80. doi:10.1016/j.molbiopara.2018.05.003

Kolla VK, Prasad R, Sayyad Z, Atul, Shah AY, Allanki AD, Navale R, Singhal N, Tanneru N, Sudhakar R, Venkatesan V, Deshmukh MV and Sijwali PS. (2015) Independent amino acid residues in the S2 pocket of falcipain-3 determine its specificity for P2 residues in substrates. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 202(2):11-22. doi: 0.1016/j.molbiopara.2015.09.005.