Do malaria parasites alter their sequestration behaviour during host anaemia?

This project will provide novel insights into interactions between two of the leading causes of death in malaria patients: severe anaemia and parasite immune-evasion by sequestration. Anaemia dramatically alters the within-host environment that parasites experience and my lab has shown that parasites have evolved sophisticated strategies to cope with the opportunities and constraints placed on them by host anaemia. We now want to ask whether parasites adjust their sequestration tactics in response to anaemia in a manner that maximises their fitness by facilitating survival and replication in the blood.