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News Services
Kansas State University
128 Dole Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-2535
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State News Services may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Source: Kristin Michel, 785-532-0161, kmichel@k-state.edu
Pronouncer: Kristin Michel is "Christine Michelle."
Photos available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415.
News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-532-6415, kmayes@k-state.edu

Monday, June 30, 2008

K-STATE RESEARCHER TACKLING GLOBAL MALARIA AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL

MANHATTAN -- Each year, as many as 3 million people around the world die from malaria -- most of them children under the age of 5.

That's why Kansas State University researcher Kristin Michel says it's so important to remain vigilant in searching for ways to defeat the disease.

"The disease is literally taking away the future in some parts of the world," she said.

In her quest against malaria, Michel has been studying ways to modify the way mosquitoes handle the parasite that causes the disease before transmitting it to humans. Michel, who joined K-State in fall 2007, is an assistant professor of biology.

Malaria is a vector-borne disease, meaning it is caused by a parasite transmitted from human to human by a carrier -- in this case the Anopheles mosquito. With most vector-borne diseases, the vector is able to carry the disease-causing organism without being afflicted. In fact, the mosquito is critical to the parasite's proper development. In order for the organism to become infectious to the human host, development within the mosquito for as many as two weeks must take place.

"Malaria is transmitted from mosquito to human to mosquito, and so on," Michel said. "The parasite is taken up in a blood meal and goes into the mosquito's gut. From there, it travels from the gut into the circulatory system and on into the mosquito's salivary glands, where it is transmitted to another human. The hope is that we can interrupt this process somewhere along the way to inhibit transmission."

Michel has been studying how malaria interacts with the mosquito's tissues and immune system in search of a weak link to exploit. Her most recent focus has been a set of proteins called serpins that regulate how the mosquito's immune system responds to the parasite. Michel found that when a mosquito lacks this particular set of proteins it affects the amount of parasite found in the mosquito's gut and salivary tissues.

"These serpins are potential targets for new intervention strategies," Michel said.

Via gene manipulation, researchers could breed a variety of mosquito lacking the ability to effectively transmit the parasite. A drug to cure the mosquito of the parasite could also be created, she said.

Michel says her work in this area could potentially translate to other vectors and other diseases because "nature doesn't start completely over every time." She said findings could be applied to both human and animal health.

Michel is a new member of K-State's Center for Epithelial Function in Health and Disease, a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative comprised of seven research teams at K-State, the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas Medical Center. The program's goal is to rapidly turn junior researchers into leading investigators supported directly by the National Institutes of Health.