Research description
Every cell is unique and generates distinct molecular response(s) in disease. Understanding these perturbations at single cell resolution is critical in unravelling complex, yet important diseases such as malaria.
In areas of endemic malaria transmission, individuals living in geographically defined regions often present distinct phenotypes when infected by the Plasmodium falciparum. I am interested in applying a systems approach to understanding how immune cells define the three key outcomes of malaria infection namely: asymptomatic, mild and symptomatic. To this end, we will adopt single cell RNA-seq and other genome-wide technologies to profile T lymphocytes derived from a high-resolution longitudinal cohort from Lake Victoria islands in Kenya. This will provide an opportunity to gain novel insight(s) into the disease in field transmission context and enhance our understanding of the main drivers of adoptive response to malaria infection.