PhD defence Marleen Linzke

Morphologic analysis of the apicoplast formation in Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium spp., remains with more than 400.000 deaths per year one of  the  most  severe infectious diseases  worldwide.  Increasing  drug  resistance  against  the  available antimalarial drugs poses a great threat in combating and eradication of this disease and new drug  targets  are  greatly  needed.  the research of Marleen Linzke has been aimed on the  apicoplast. The apicoplast is  a  chloroplast-like  organelles  of  the Plasmodium parasite has been shown to be essential for the parasite survival and offers new drug target to exploit. How the parasite distributes this essential organelle during the asexual replication has been an open question up to this point. Identifying and understanding the mechanism might open up the road to new drug targets to target the parasite.

Promotores: Prof.dr. A.S.S. Dömling and Prof.dr. C. Wrenger