Sumana Sharma

PhD Student

Alumni

This person is a member of Sanger Institute Alumni.

Sumana is a PhD student working on developing methods to identify and validate protein interactions between Plasmodium merozoites and human host cells, which are required for the pathogenenis of malaria.

I am interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the invasion of human host erythrocytes by Plasmodium parasites. This process involves many host-parasite protein-protein interactions but very few of these are known to date. Currently, I am developing a CRISPR/Cas9 based cellular screen to identify novel low affinity receptor ligand interactions using highly avid recombinant proteins and the resources developed by Kosuke Yusa for genome-wide recessive screens.

My timeline

• Joined the Wellcome Trust PhD program

• Completed M.Sc degree in Molecular Biology from International Max Planck Research School, Goettingen University, Germany

• Started an external M.Sc thesis project with Dr. Julian Rayner on identification and characterization of protein interaction in Plasmodium falciparum.

• Completed B.Sc degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Jacobs Univeristy Bremen, Germany