Frontier Technologies

Central to the aims of the ARC Network for Parasitology is the development of novel molecular tools and information resources.

The Network will focus on the field of bioinformatics and the development of new databases and data management systems. This will allow Australia's researchers to harness the vast quantity of information that is being generated by the growing number of genome sequencing projects.

By placing Australia at the forefront of this research, the Network will create unprecedented opportunities to identify new vulnerabilities and targets for the control of parasites.

The specific objectives of the Network are to enhance and focus Australia’s parasitology research effort to:

• Discover and develop molecular and bioinformatics tools for studying parasite biology; and
• Discover and develop anti-parasite vaccines and therapies.

Case Study : Code-busting science to combat a killer

Deborah Smith, Sydney Morning Herald 03.10.02

In a scientific assault on malaria, the genetic codes of the parasite that causes the deadliest form of the disease and the mosquito which carries it have been deciphered.

Malaria is one of the most devastating infectious illnesses in the world, killing up to 2.5million people a year, most of them children in Africa.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, described the achievement by research teams from around the globe, including Australia, as “a potential major breakthrough for the development of novel strategies in combating malaria.”

Malaria researcher Alan Cowman, of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, said it would now take hours, rather than years of work, to identify genes in the parasite that could be targets for much-needed new drugs and vaccines: “This is the most exciting time for malaria research we have ever had.”

Stuart Ralph, of the University of Melbourne, who helped identify some of the parasite's genes, said that the genetic code of the parasite and mosquito would be compared with the human genome, which was sequenced last year.

“For the first time a wealth of information is available for all three species that comprises the life cycle of the malaria parasite. This provides us with abundant opportunities for the study of their complex interactions that result in disease."

The genome of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is published in Nature today. The genome of the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, is to be published in Science on Friday.

It took a consortium of more than 150 scientists six years to work out the order of the 24million “letters”, or chemical building blocks, of the parasite's DNA in a technical tour de force.

Team leader Malcolm Gardner of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, said: “It was one of the most difficult genome projects we have ever tackled.”

This was because about 80 per cent of the code consisted of only two of the four possible “letters”.

Malaria is so widespread because the parasite uses numerous tricks to evade the body's immune system. The genome analysis has already identified about 200 parasite genes that produce proteins involved in this elaborate process.

The team also worked out the genome of the malaria parasite that infects rats and mice rather than people, Plasmodium yoelii yoelii, which is used as a laboratory model of the human disease.

Knowledge of the mosquito's genome, which is 278 million “letters” long, could lead to new insecticides to overcome the problem of resistance. Genes may also be found that control the insect's ability to host the parasite or locate a human.

The team leader of the mosquito genome project, Robert Holt, of American company Celera Genomics, said a repellent to block the receptors that mosquitoes use to sniff out people would be an efficient way of preventing the spread of malaria.

Researchers have also been creating genetically modified mosquitoes that are resistant to the malaria parasite.

But Dr Cowman said there were many concerns about releasing them into the environment.

Other commentators have said funding could be better spent on counter-measures like insecticide-impregnated bed nets.

“Many would argue that children in Africa are dying for want of access to simple existing methods,” a WHO official told Nature.

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