Gomes Lab

Research focus

ERC Starting Grant · 2023

Cell cycle progression in malaria parasites

All eukaryotic cell multiplication requires well-orchestrated developmental programs and regulatory pathways to guarantee fidelity in transmission of genetic information. Multiplication inside red blood cells of Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite, is responsible for malaria pathogenicity. Unlike model organisms, Plasmodium divides in unconventional ways producing not two but up to tens of thousands of daughter cells, in a single cell cycle round. This points to a yet-to-be-explored original and divergent cell cycle architecture where conventional rules likely do not apply. We hypothesise that a transcriptional clock paces the cell cycle while a network of local players…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.