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gathered would then be used to select wild lines and farmers’
varieties as a focus for future investigations into drought
tolerance.
Dr. Marian Agyiriwa Nyako
of the Department of
Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology is working on the
project titled “Importance
of carotenoid biosynthesis
in asexual and sexual stage
parasite development” with
Dr. Oliver Billker of the
Sanger Institute.
The project will combine
pharmacological and
genetic approaches to
investigate the function of
carotenoid biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum blood
stage parasite development, and in the sexual stages that
transmit the parasite to mosquitoes. The CAPREx fellowship
will complement unique resources of laboratory in a malaria
endemic country with access to skills and resources of a
leading programme in malaria genetics at the Wellcome
Trust Sanger Institute. Using field isolates from Ghana, this
research will utilize drug inhibition of the carotenoid pathway
to explore the cell biology of asexual and sexual stage
parasites. The findings will significantly contribute to the
understanding of the function of carotenoid in the malaria
parasite.
Dr. Theresa Manful,
Department of Biochemistry, Cell and
Molecular Biology is collaborating with Dr. Mark Carrington
of the Department of
Biochemistry at the
University of Cambridge
to conduct research on
“The epidemiology of
lifetime infections with
trypanosomes in individual
cattle in Ghana”.
The project will use
molecular fingerprinting to identify individual trypanosome
genotypes and then to characterize the epidemiology of the
trypanosome populations present in individual cows over
their lifetimes. The outcome of this project will be a better
understanding of animal trypanosomiasis and trypanosome
biology, and will better inform control strategies for this
disease.
Dr. Samuel Antwi-Baffour
of the Department of Medical
Laboratory Sciences of the School of Allied Health Sciences is
working with Dr. Gavin Wright of the Sanger Institute on the
project titled “Identification
of novel binding partners
for GPI-linked P. falciparum
merozoite surface proteins
in parasite culture
supernatants”.
The aim of the project is
to identify host binding
partners for up to eleven
different GPI-linked P. falciparum merozoite surface
proteins and also to validate any identified interactions.
The approach will be to immobilize the recombinant P.
falciparum merozoite surface proteins onto beads, present
them to host serum/parasite culture supernatants, elute any
bound proteins and identify them using mass spectrometry.
Identified interactions will be validated by AVEXIS assay and
surface Plasmon resonance.
Dr. Augustine Ocloo
of the Department of Biochemistry,
Cell and Molecular Biology is collaborating with Dr. Andrew
Murray of the Department of Physiology, Development
and Neuroscience at the
Cambridge University on
the project “Mitochondria
as pharmacological targets
for pharmacological and
toxicological evaluation
of medicinal plant
extracts”. The study
seeks to understand the
effect of extracts of Ghana’s
medicinal plants on mitochondrial function in vitro. Since
mitochondria are also known to be responsible for producing
about 90% of cellular energy, they are involved in host of
cellular processes and have been implicated in many disease
conditions. Mitochondria are also known to be important in
drug metabolism, either acting as primary drug targets or
secondary targets for drug and could therefore be important
targets for finding therapeutic treatment for many non-
infectious diseases. In addition, many xenobiotics exert their
toxicity through the mitochondria.
Dr. Marian Agyiriwa Nyako
Dr. Theresa Manful
Dr. Samuel Antwi-Baffour
Dr Augustine Ocloo
