LSHTM Event – The deafening silence of Plasmodium falciparum asymptomatic infections

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is inviting you to the Malaria Centre series event titled “The deafening silence of Plasmodium falciparum asymptomatic infections”.

Malaria in The Gambia is seasonal, with virtually all cases occurring during or just after the four month-long wet season. As there is very little transmission during the dry season, the reservoir for Plasmodium falciparum parasites is thought to be within asymptomatic chronic infections. How the parasite can survive in the same human host for more than 8 months is not understood.

Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Time: 13:00 – 14:00 (UK time)

Place: online and in-person in London, United Kingdom.

Speaker

• Antoine Clasessens – Biochemist by training, his malaria research career started when Antoine was awarded a Wellcome Trust PhD at Edinburgh University, during which he discovered that P. falciparum group-A var genes were necessary for binding to endothelial cells in an in vitro model for cerebral malaria. During his post-doc at the Sanger Institute, Antoine showed how mitotic ectopic recombination creates new “chimeric” var genes using next-generation sequencing tools. He was then awarded an MRC fellowship based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and at the MRC-Gambia for a Plasmodium falciparum population genomic study. From the bench to bioinformatics via the bush, Antoine is now an all-rounder malariologist starting his own group (GATAC-Malaria) as a Chargé de Recherche Inserm at LPHI and MIVEGEC, Montpellier, France. 

Admission is free and open to all, online and in person. No registration required.

To join remotely, click here.

Read more here.