Drexel University College of Medicine

Microbiology and Immunology Graduate Program   B.E., Electronics Engineering, BDCOE Nagpur University, India   M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA   Email: sumit.kumar@drexel.edu   Advisor: Dr. Lawrence W. Bergman

Thesis Research Summary:

Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium species, of which Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the two most virulent forms of human parasite. The Plasmodium life cycle comprises mainly three developmental stages, the mosquito, liver and blood stages. The blood stage is the one responsible for the symptoms associated with the disease. Functional genomics studies have shown that Plasmodium gene expression is under tight transcriptional control during various stages of infection. Interestingly, very few transcription factors are identified for this mechanism of transcriptional regulation. My thesis project will focus on identifying and characterizing new transcription factors involved in the regulation of genes or group of genes and establishing their role in the pathogenesis. DNA microarray would be the starting point for the transcriptional analyses using mouse malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide insight into the transcriptional regulation in Plasmodium and identify new therapeutic targets.