Team traces evolution of malaria

“Coaxing entire parasite genome sequences out of small quantities of unprocessed ape blood will help us to better understand what happened and whether it can happen again,” said Sesh Sundararaman, an MD/PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania.

The team plans, as a next step, to use their select genome amplification technique to sequence additional ape parasite genomes to identify host-specific interactions and transmission requirements. They believe this would reveal vulnerabilities that might be exploited to combat malaria in humans.