The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall
Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility
cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes
disease and escapes from the defenses mounted by the immune
system. The research team, led by Professor Alan Cowman from the
institute's Infection and Immunity division, has identified one
of the crucial molecules that instructs the parasite to employ
its invisibility cloak to hide from the immune system, and helps
its offspring to remember how to 'make' the cloak. In research
published today in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, Professor
Cowman and colleagues reveal details about the first molecule
found to control the genetic expression of PfEMP1 (Plasmodium
falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1), a protein that is
known to be a major cause of disease during malaria infection.
"The molecule that we discovered, named PfSET10, plays an
important role in the genetic control of PfEMP1; an essential
parasite protein that is u