Our group is interested in malaria and endosymbiosis - two topics that seem somewhat far apart but are in fact strangely interconnected. Our research has led to a paradigm shift in understanding the malaria parasite. We had a central role in discovering that the malaria parasite is a kind of microscopic plant.  We found the remnants of a plant-like chloroplast in the parasite, which is now providing novel ways to tackle this serious disease and might lead to herbicides being used as drugs against the parasite.

The group is part of the Plant Cell Biology Research Centre in the School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Australia. The group is led by Professor Geoff McFadden.

We are based in a Botany School but we run malaria culture facilities, mouse malaria models, a Toxoplasma culture facility, and an Anopheles mosquito colony.  Botany also has everything that opens & shuts for molecular and cellular biology, proteomics, metabolomics and microscopy.