The Lee lab is interested in the molecular basis of drug resistance in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and in developing molecular genetics approaches to interrogate gene function.

An individual malaria infection can be driven by more than 100 billion parasites at the peak of the disease cycle. Over the course of a chronic infection, the parasite has the potential to develop vast genetic diversity. This latent variability has troubling implications for the ease with which the parasite might develop immunity to drug treatment, both current and future. In the field, clinical resistance can take as little as a year to develop or can accrue over decades.

One of our longstanding research interests has been to understand the mechanisms available to the parasite to develop resistance, which often comes at a cost in terms of fitness in the absence of drug pressure. Using and developing new molecular genetics approaches, we hope to guide the development and prioritisation of future therapeutic targets and gain biological insight into critical parasite pathways.