Publications

Protein-energetic malnutrition hinders malaria vaccine-derived cellular and class-switched antibody responses against the Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite protein in mice

November 21, 2024

Malaria continues to afflict hundreds of millions of lives annually, causing substantial fatalities despite available vaccines endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, these vaccines lack efficacy against Plasmodium vivax (Pv). Concomitantly, a considerable part of residents from several Pv-endemic areas face malnutrition, compromising their immunity to diseases, including malaria. Faria, A. C., Fock, R. A., […]

A self-eliminating allelic-drive reverses insecticide resistance in Drosophila leaving no transgene in the population

November 18, 2024

Insecticide resistance (IR) poses a significant global challenge to public health and welfare. Here, we develop a locally-acting unitary self-eliminating allelic-drive system, inserted into the Drosophila melanogaster yellow (y) locus. The drive cassette encodes both Cas9 and a single gRNA to bias inheritance of the favored wild-type (1014 L) allele over the IR (1014 F) variant of the voltage-gated sodium […]

Malaria treatment for prevention: a modelling study of the impact of routine case management on malaria prevalence and burden

November 11, 2024

Testing and treating symptomatic malaria cases is crucial for case management, but it may also prevent future illness by reducing mean infection duration. Measuring the impact of effective treatment on burden and transmission via field studies or routine surveillance systems is difficult and potentially unethical. The most significant prevalence reduction – up to 50% – was […]

Genome editing of WSSV CRISPR/Cas9 and immune activation extends the survival of infected Penaeus vannamei

November 8, 2024

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is an exceptionally harmful virus that generally causes high levels of mortality in cultured shrimp. Attempts at viral suppression have been made to control the disease and have achieved limited efficiency. Recent advances in genome editing technology using CRISPR/Cas9 have led to potential innovations to prevent or treat many viral […]

Iterative crRNA design and a PAM-free strategy enabled an ultra-specific RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a detection platform

November 8, 2024

CRISPR/Cas12a is a highly promising detection tool. However, detecting single nucleotide variations (SNVs) remains challenging. Here, we elucidate Cas12a specificity through crRNA engineering and profiling of single- and double-base mismatch tolerance across three targets. Our findings indicate that Cas12a specificity depends on the number, type, location, and distance of mismatches within the R-loop. Mao, […]