Staff

Motomi, TORII
Professor

Tomoko, ISHINO
Associate Professor

Mayumi, TACHIBANA
Assistant Professor

Noaki, SHINZAWA
Assistant Professor

Rachaneeporn JENWITHISUK
Researcher

Niwat KANGWANRANGSAN
Researcher

Naohito, TOKUNAGA
Post-Doctral Fellow

Eri, MURATA
Post-Doctral Fellow

Stephan, Josef, HEGGE
Post-Doctral Fellow(JSPS)

Noriko, KOBATASHI
Assistant

Cell-Free Science & Technology Reserch Center (CSTRC)
Malaria Research Unit

Almuni

Natsumi, IYOKU

Hitoshi, OTSUKI

Gao SHUANG-YAN

Hideyuki, IRIKO

Osamu, KANEKO
Move to Nagasaki University Professor

Zheng Li
Graduate Student

Cao Jun
Visiting Fellow

Introduction       Malaria is a deadly disease which strikes throughout the wide tropical zones of the world. Because of the continuing failures of vaccines against this disease, we believe a key toward solving this situation is to solidify the foundation of our understanding of the basic biology of this parasite. We are investigating fundamental questions such as the invasion mechanism of erythrocytes by merozoites, motility of mosquito midgut ookinete stages and the invasion of the mosquito midgut. We are currently focusing on two principal projects: Development of a Plasmodium vivax transmission blocking vaccine in collaboration with NIH (USA) and AFRIMS (Thailand) and isolation and characterization of new vaccine sexual stage candidate proteins from Plasmodium spp; and, secondly, studies on the invasion mechanism of erythrocyte by the merozoite stage parasite. For the past few years our main effort has been directed toward the identification of new receptor molecules involved in invasion, including the functional analysis of newly identified rhoptry proteins.

Achievement

Publications (1997-present)
Featured in the Local News

Photography

Scenes in our laboratory
Thailand for Transmission Blocking Exp. (Aug/2001)

Graduate Course

The Guide for the Graduate Course 2006

Useful Link

About Matsuyama City (Capital of Ehime Prefecture)
"What's Going On?" (Matsuyama International Center (MIC) Volunteer Guides)