Shirley Luckhart, PhD

My work for the past 20+ years has focused on malaria. In particular, we have studied malaria parasite development and transmission in laboratory models and transmission of human malaria parasites in the lab and under field conditions in endemic countries. Although the majority of my published work has focused on transmission biology in the mosquito host, we have significantly expanded our work to include pathogenesis of malaria in a variety of model systems. My lab is currently recognized internationally for expertise in the biology of the bloodfeeding interface – that is, how factors in mammalian host blood (drugs, cytokines, parasite factors) influence parasite development and transmission to the mosquito host. Current projects include the study and modeling of cross-species signaling dynamics between mosquitoes and mammals at the bloodfeeding interface, molecular biology of cell signaling
pathways that regulate parasite development in the mosquito host, mitochondrial bioenergetics control of tissue homeostasis and immunity in the mosquito host, development of dual anti-malarial therapeutics with transmission blocking activity, pathogenesis of malaria-Salmonella co-infection using both mouse and non-human primate models, and the influence of human HIV co-infection on malaria parasite transmission in Kenya.

sluckhart

2016-02-25

James M. Jennings

UCDHS