Our lab is working on two major areas of research:the immunobiology of the pre-erythrocytic stages of malaria parasites and the development of a malaria vaccine. Minutes after mosquito bite, malaria sporozoites enter hepatocytes. Two membrane proteins of sporozoites named CS and TRAP are involved in the initial stages of infection. By gene targeting we are now creating parasite lines that bear subtle mutations in specific domains of CS and in TRAP to study the function of these molecules. We hope to use this information to increase the efficacy of existing CS-based vaccines.