Gene Therapy: A Promising Therapeutic Strategy for Malaria

Malaria is a serious illness caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which places approximately 3.5 billion people at risk. Currently, preventative measures are key in combatting this disease. However, gene therapy is an emerging field that shows promising results for the treatment of malaria, by modifying cells through the delivery of genetic material. Most notable was the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, which not only allows deleterious mutations to be repaired, but does so with specificity, speed, and simplicity. There are numerous ongoing trials focusing on gene therapy in malaria treatment and prevention. They involve different approaches such as the genetic modification of vector mosquitoes to interfere with malaria transmission, use of CRISPR-Cas9, maternal-effect dominant embryonic arrest, homing endonuclease gene drive systems, and the design of specific Morpholino oligomers to interfere with the expression of parasitic characteristics. Overall, this emerging field shows promising results to treat and prevent not just malaria, but other diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and obesity

Determining crystal structures through crowdsourcing and coursework

We show here that computer game players can build high-quality crystal structures. Introduction of a new feature into the computer game Foldit allows players to build and real-space refine structures into electron density maps. To assess the usefulness of this feature, we held a crystallographic model-building competition between trained crystallographers, undergraduate students, Foldit players and automatic model-building algorithms. After removal of disordered residues, a team of Foldit players achieved the most accurate structure. Analysing the target protein of the competition, YPL067C, uncovered a new family of histidine triad proteins apparently involved in the prevention of amyloid toxicity. From this study, we conclude that crystallographers can utilize crowdsourcing to interpret electron density information and to produce structure solutions of the highest quality