Antoine CLAESSENS |
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Information |
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Laboratory of Pathogen Host Interactions | ||
GATAC-Malaria | ||
Montpellier | ||
0000-0002-4277-0914 | ||
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | ||
https://lphi.umontpellier.fr/en/lphi-teams/genomic-approaches-to-asymptomatic-chronic-malaria | ||
@Ant1_Claessens | ||
Scientific interests and projects |
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How is the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum able to establish a chronic, asymptomatic infection in a human host? The GATAC-Malaria team is addressing this question using blood isolates collected in the field and Next Generation Sequencing technology. The objectives of our team are to decipher cellular and molecular features related to two essential parasitic functions: host cell invasion and intracellular replication, with the aim of identifying novel therapeutic strategies. Our research is mainly focused on T. gondii, which is a relevant model for many features conserved throughout the phylum. We then extend our important discoveries to the malaria parasite. We use a broad array of cell biological and biochemical approaches, as well as cutting-edge molecular genetics and genome editing. A major challenge for any malaria elimination campaign is Plasmodium falciparum asymptomatic infections, the hidden infectious reservoir. Nevertheless, these infections can provide useful information on the host-pathogen interactions over an extended period of time. Our lab strive to understand how P. falciparum parasites can survive in human chronic infections over the 6-month long dry season, using an already available collection of blood samples from a cohort of asymptomatic volunteers in The Gambia. To explore how the parasite senses its environment and adapt to it, we measure the parasite multiplication rate and sequence its transcriptome. Our novel protocol can sequence a whole transcriptome from as few as 1000 parasites. We will identify genes associated with seasonality using dry and wet season samples from The Gambia. In parallel, we focus on parasite antigenic variation by analyzing the dynamicity of the var gene transcription pattern. In summary, we will advance our understanding of the parasite biology and discover key molecular drivers of asymptomatic infections, a critical step to enable the eradication of malaria. |
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Top 5 publications of the last 5 years |
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1. Claessens A, Adams Y, Ghumra A, Lindergard G, … Bozdech Z and Rowe JA (2012). Group A-like PfEMP1s mediate cytoadherence to human brain endothelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1120461109 2. Claessens A, Hamilton W, Kekre M, Otto T, Faizullabhoy A, Rayner J, Kwiatkowski D (2014). Generation of antigenic diversity in Plasmodium falciparum by structured rearrangement of var genes during mitosis. PLoS Genetics. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004812 3. Claessens A, Hamilton W, Otto T, Kekre M, Fairhurst R, Rayner J, Kwiatkowski D (2016). Extreme mutation bias and high AT content in Plasmodium falciparum. Nucleic Acid Research. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkw1259 4. Claessens A, Affara M, Assefa S, Kwiatkowski D & Conway D (2017). Culture adaptation of malaria parasites selects for convergent loss-of-function mutants. Scientific Reports. Joint corresponding author. doi: 10.1038/srep41303 5. Claessens A, Harris LM, Stanojcic S, Chappell L, Stanton A, Kuk N, et al. (2018) RecQ helicases in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum affect genome stability, gene expression patterns and DNA replication dynamics. PLoS Genetics. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007490 |
The York Biomedical Research Institute (YBRI) are hosting an online live seminar on Friday 24th May 1-2pm BST as part of their biomedical science seminar series. You are all welcome to attend - registration is required via the...
[Communiqué] Congratulations to Arthur Talman, IRD Research Leader in the MIVEGEC laboratory (Montpellier), who has been awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the project "TROJAN - Molecular mimicry and immune...
Ana Rita Gomes, a CNRS Research Associate at the Laboratory of Pathogens and Host Immunity in Montpellier, and former Postdoctoral fellow of the LabEx ParaFrap, has been awarded the prestigious CNRS Bronze Medal in 2023. This...
. PhD Opportunity, Tours, France Supervision Thesis Supervisor: Sonia LAMANDE; Co-Supervisor: Julie TOTTEY Project: FUNTIONAL CHARACTERISATION OF CYSTEINE CATHEPSINS IN THE APICOMPLEXAN PARASITE CRYPTOSPORIDIUM...
Senior PostDoc position : computational biologist, Paris, France The ParSig team (https://research.pasteur.fr/en/team/molecular-parasitology-and-signaling) at the Institut Pasteur in Paris seeks for a highly...
Researcher in Livestock Immunology for the Study of Animal Trypanosomoses Through a One Health approach, the Intertryp Joint Research Unit (Cirad-IRD) is developing research on interactions between hosts,...
Happy New Year 2024! To kick off this new scientific year, here is the ParaFrap webinar schedule. Since January 2021, ParaFrap has been organizing a series of webinars. This monthly event, held every 2nd Thursday of the month, aims to strengthen...
PostDoc position : functional analysis of P. falciparum early gametocyte proteins, Allschwil, Switzerland The Malaria Gene Regulation Lab of Till Voss is looking for a highly motivated and talented postdoc to...
The team of Dr. Mohamed-Ali Hakimi, in collaboration with Isabelle Coppens (Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Malaria Research Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA), has developed a new (epi)genetic method to produce in vitro...
Success for ParaFrap students at MPM2023 Parafrap students won numerous awards at the MPM 2023, Woods Hole USA, 17-21 September 2023. A warm congratulations to all ! Parul Sharma (2nd year PhD under the...
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