Malcolm McConville laboratory
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Head of Laboratory
Professor Malcolm McConville+61 03 8344 2342
Research Overview
Our research focuses on the eukaryotic microbial pathogens that cause a number of important and neglected human diseases. These include Plasmodium falciparum (the cause of malaria), Toxoplasma gondii (human toxoplasmosis) and Leishmania spp (human leishmaniasis).
There are no vaccines against any of these disease and current drug treatments are limited and constantly being undermined by the development of drug-resistance. The identification and validation of new drug targets requires a deeper understanding of the biology and metabolism of these pathogens in vivo.
To identify parasite metabolic pathways and host responses that are essential for parasite survival in their human and animal hosts we use a range of approaches. They include comprehensive metabolite profiling (or metabolomics) that employ a range of advanced analytical techniques, as well as genetic, biochemical and cell biology approaches.
Figure 1: (Left) The malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum proliferates in human red blood cells. We are keen to identify how new antimalarial lead compounds work. (Centre) Advanced mass spectrometric analysis can identify hundreds to thousands of metabolites, providing a new and extremely powerful tool for studying parasite metabolism and drug responses. (Right) Leishmania parasites (outlined in green) reside within the lysosome compartment of human macrophages (outlined in white). Understanding how they do this will open up new avenues for drug development.
Staff
Research staff
Julie Ralton, Research Fellow
Fleur Sernee, Research Fellow
Eleanor Saunders, Research Fellow,
Vinzenz Hofferek, Research Fellow
Reetika Manhas, Post-doctoral Research fellow
Graduate students
Jiang Nan Zhu, PhD student
Erin McGowen, PhD student
Thomas Soerianto, PhD student
Funding
Australia India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF53749) Eliminating Visceral leishmaniasis - an Australian-Indian Partnership; with Talukdar A, Ganguly D, Baell J
ARC Discovery Project (DP180102729) Uncovering novel metabolic processes in eukaryotic cells; with Stuart Ralph
ARC Discovery Project (DP180102463) Investigating pathways of lipoglycan formation in the bacterial cell wall; with Coppel R, McConville MJ and Lucet I
Project:Investigating pathways of lipoglycan formation in the bacterial cell wall.
NIH (5RO1AI103280-02)Fosmidomycin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum with Odom A
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1183177)Cryptosporidium: Tools for Target Identification and Validation; with Striepen,
NHMRC Project Grant (APP1138863)Targeting phosphoinositide metabolism in Leishmania
NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship (APP1154540) Targeting the metabolism of parasitic protozoa
National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme/Metabolomics Australia National Metabolomics Facility
NHMRC Ideas Grant (APP1183085)Targeting carbohydrate metabolism in Leishmania
Research Publications
Click here for the results of a PubMed search of Malcolm's publications.
Click here for the results of a Google Scholar analysis of Malcolm's publications.