Plasmodium vivax is a parasite that puts 2.5 billion people around the world at risk of malaria and is the leading cause of the disease outside of Africa. P. vivax is very similar to parasites that affect African apes living in the wild. New research from the Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Edinburgh examined the genomic sequences of these ape parasites, lending insights into the origin and early evolution of the human parasite.
The work may help researchers better understand and even eradicate malaria infection, the researchers say.
“Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas all harbor parasites that are close relatives of human P. vivax, but to date our knowledge of these parasites has been limited to a small number of gene fragments,” said co-senior author Beatrice Hahn, a professor of medicine and microbiology at Penn.
In the study, researchers compared almost-full-length genomes of ape parasites with sequences of P. vivax strains infecting humans worldwide.
“We found that ape and human parasites share near-identical genomes, differing by only two percent within the gene sequences that code for proteins,” said Dorothy Loy, an MD/PhD student in Hahn’s lab.
Nanoparticle blueprints reveal path to smarter medicines
New research involving Penn Engineering shows detailed variation in lipid nanoparticle size, shape, and internal structure, and finds that such factors correlate with how well they deliver therapeutic cargo to a particular destination.
A generous gift from alumni Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman brings the work of internationally acclaimed artist Jaume Plensa to the University of Pennsylvania. The latest addition to the Penn Art Collection expands Philadelphia's public art.
A massive chunk of ice, a new laser, and new information on sea-level rise
For nearly a decade, Leigh Stearns and collaborators aimed a laser scanner system at Greenland’s Helheim Glacier. Their long-running survey reveals that Helheim’s massive calving events don’t behave the way scientists once thought, reframing how ice loss contributes to sea-level rise.
