Swarnajayanti Fellow from CDRI probing mitochondrion of malaria parasite for hints into alternative drug targets
Dr. Niti Kumar, Scientist at the CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, a Swarnajayanti fellowship awardee of 2020-21, along with her research group, is trying to identify proteins which influence the shape-function of the single mitochondrion that the malaria parasite harbors as well as how it undergoes repair. Understanding these processes will help decipher how the parasite adapts to environmental perturbations, mitigate drug-induced toxicity (phenotypic drug resistance), drive recurrence of infection after completion of treatment, and relapse from dormant stages. Malaria biology is an interesting field not only from the perspective of biochemical or molecular investigations, but it also allows addressing exciting cell biology/organelle-biology questions. This intracellular parasite exhibits unique organellar complexity and divergence. It harbors a single mitochondrion which undergoes dramatic morphological changes, an apicoplast (non-photosynthetic, relict plastid), very