Malaria Research Laboratory

Principal Investigator - Prof J.P. Dean Goldring

Biographical Sketch
Prof Goldring obtained his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee in Scotland and his DPhil from the University of Zimbabwe. The subject of his DPhil Thesis was “Acetyl-CoA carboxylase in the tsetse fly and other insects”. He spent three years as a Post-Doc at Hahnemann University Medical School in Philadelphia, USA studying T-cell mediated immunity to malaria with Bill Weidanz and Carol Long. He then spent three years with Marcel Hommel at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the U.K. studying cerebral malaria in children. Prof Goldring Lectured Biochemistry and established a malaria research lab at the University of the Witwatersrand before moved to Pietermaritzburg.

Malaria Research Team
Mr Ike Achilonou. Ike has a BSc from the University of Abijan in Nigeria. His MSc is the investigation of dye-protein interactions for protein detection and developing dye-based diagnostics.
Bridgette Cummings

Recent presentations at International conferences
2001 D. Dorin, K. LeRoch, P. Sallicandro, P. Alano, D Pary, D Goldring and C Deorig.3rd Biennale de Prasitologie, Lille Pfnek-1, une nouvelle proteine-kinase de Plasmodium falciparum. (Poster).
2002 J.P. Dean Goldring. Invited Presentation. Malaria: Bugs drugs and over 2 million children die each year - where is the vaccine ? The institute of materials. 16th National Rubber Conference 2002.
2002 D. Dorin, K. LeRoch, P. Alano, D. Parzy, D. Goldring and C. Doerig, MAP kinases pathways of P. falciparum as potential drug targets. Keystone conference 2002, USA.

2002 Publications
J.P. Dean Goldring (2002) Antimalarial drugs do not “hide” malaria parasites from laboratory detection. South African Medical Journal, 92, 395.

Research interests
Malaria kills over 2 million children each year. With the ease of modern travel malaria parasites resistant to standard anti-malarial drugs are spreading rapidly. Dr Goldring’s research team has a multifaceted approach to understanding the complex interactions between the malaria parasite and man. The team looks at developing new methods of diagnosing malaria with a simple and cost effective dip-stick assay. They have developed an array of antibodies against anti-malarial drugs which can be used to track malaria drugs in a range of cells, tissues and body fluids.
To understand how the disease affects cells of the immune system during a malaria infection and under the influence of anti-malarial drug therapy, they employ X-Ray microanalysis. X-Ray microanalysis enables the measurement of minute changes in the concentrations of elements within individual cells.
The team has identified a malaria protein which has promising vaccine potential. The expression, location and structure of the protein is being studied.