Congratulations to Dr. Small-Saunders on receiving a 2024 NIH Director's New Innovator Award!

Dr. Small-Saunders received the New Innovator Award, which supports especially innovative research from early-career investigators, for her work on "Epigenetic drivers of quiescence in artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria".

Malaria parasites are getting increasingly better at resisting an essential drug, artemisinin, imperiling global malaria treatment and control. Small-Saunders has recently uncovered hidden parasite biology that could potentially lead to a new class of antimalarials.

One way that drug-resistant malaria parasites can evade artemisinin is by switching into a quiescent, inactive state and reawakening after the drug washes away. Small-Saunders has discovered that parasites can make the switch by tapping into an epigenetic mechanism, tRNA modification reprogramming, that can rapidly alter the composition of proteins within the parasite.

Parasites may take advantage of other epigenetic mechanisms, including non-coding RNAs, that are known to regulate quiescence in cancer cells and bacteria. By harnessing techniques from these other fields, Small-Saunders will identify these non-coding RNAs and other epigenetic pathways that can lead to quiescence in drug-resistant parasites.

The work should identify parasite vulnerabilities that can be leveraged into the development of new antimalarials to combat one of the deadliest global diseases.

More information on Dr. Small-Saunders and the 2024 Awardees can be found (HERE)!