# Discovering the essential genome of Plasmodium falciparum

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA · 2020 · $656,563

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Malaria is a leading cause of human death and illness, causing over 200 million cases of clinical malaria
and 400,000 deaths each year. Traditional measures to control and cure malaria are becoming increasingly
less effective and there is an urgent need for the development of new drugs and vaccines. A strategic
hurdle for development of new anti-malarial therapeutics remains the lack of experimentally validated
functional information about most Plasmodium falciparum genes. This is a critical gap of knowledge
hindering identification of new drugs and vaccines. Therefore, efficient development of these new therapies
requires a better understanding of essential metabolic pathways and weaknesses in the parasite’s
physiology to target. Our approach is to use functional genomics studies to identify essential genes of P.
falciparum through whole genome saturation-level piggyBac mutagenesis and forward genetic screens.
Preliminary studies have validated this approach to identify essential and dispensable processes for
asexual blood-stage growth under ideal in vitro culture conditions. We will extend these studies to identify
factors essential for in vivo survival, too. Through this project, we expect to identify most genes critical for
parasite blood-stage growth and development helping to identify and prioritize novel targets on which drug
and vaccine discovery projects can be initiated. In addition, this project will provide the malaria research
community with a large collection of gene knockouts valuable for many other research projects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9940677
- **Project number:** 5R01AI130171-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** John H Adams
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $656,563
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-06-15 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9940677

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9940677, Discovering the essential genome of Plasmodium falciparum (5R01AI130171-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9940677. Licensed CC0.

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