Department of Molecular Protozoology

Subjects:

1. Development of a malaria vaccine.
2. Development of anti-malarials based on computer drug design.
3. Study on host-parasite interaction of malaria infection.
4. Molecular mechanism underlying the intraerythrocytic proliferation of Plasmodium falciparum.

Published Papers

1. Plasmodium falciparum serine-repeat antigen (SERA) forms a homodimer through disulfide bond.

   Dan Sato, Jie Li, Toshihide Mitamura and Toshihiro Horii

   Parasitol Int, 54 (4), 261-265, 2005.
2. A novel enzyme complex of orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase in human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum: physical association, kinetics, and inhibition characterization.

   Sudaratana R Krungkrai, Brian J DelFraino, Jeffrey A Smiley, Phisit Prapunwattana, Toshihide Mitamura, Toshihiro Horii and Jerapan Krungkrai

   Biochemistry, 44 (5), 1643-1652, 2005.
3. Toll-like receptor 9 mediates innate immune activation by the malaria pigment hemozoin.

   Cevayir Coban, Ken J Ishii, Taro Kawai, Hiroaki Hemmi, Shintaro Sato, Satoshi Uematsu, Masahiro Yamamoto, Osamu Takeuchi, Sawako Itagaki, Nirbhay Kumar, Toshihiro Horii and Shizuo Akira

   J Exp Med, 201 (1), 19-25, 2005.
4. Root of the Eukaryota tree as inferred from combined maximum likelihood analyses of multiple molecular sequence data.

   Nobuko Arisue, Masami Hasegawa and Tetsuo Hashimoto

   Mol Biol Evol, 22 (3), 409-420, 2005.

Link

http://www.biken.osaka-u.ac.jp/