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| Name |
Barillas-Mury, Carolina |
| Location
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National Institutes of Health |
| Primary Field
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Microbial Biology |
| Secondary Field
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Animal, Nutritional and Applied Microbial Sciences |
 Election Citation
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Barillas-Mury's work has revolutionized our understanding of mosquito immune defenses against malarial parasites, including nitration in the midgut that marks parasites for lysis and innate immune memory. Her discovery of a parasite molecule that suppresses nitration uncovered a molecular strategy parasites use to evade immunity and enable their transmission. |
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Research Interests
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Carolina Barillas-Mury's laboratory is interested in understanding the interactions between the mosquito immune system and Plasmodium parasites that are critical for malaria transmission, with the ultimate goal of disrupting the parasite's life cycle and preventing human disease. Her program has four major areas of interest: Interactions between Plasmodium parasites, the gut microbiota, and mosquito midgut epithelial cells; Immune pathways that mediate antiplasmodial responses; Hemocyte differentiation and innate immune memory in mosquitoes; and Plasmodium evasion of the mosquito immune system |
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