Research Activities

Dr Teresa Carvalho heads the Molecular Parasitology Group at La Trobe University and her group studies parasites that are relevant to human and animal health. We study the most virulent of human malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum, that causes half a million deaths every year. We aim to understand the biological and genetic mechanisms that allow the parasite to survive inside its human host and cause disease. Ultimately, our team has a multi-disciplinary approach to finding novel anti-malarial drugs. We collaborate with a wide range of experts to test novel chemical structures for their anti-parasitic activity, and we test if already available drugs can be repurposed as anti-malarials. Our research team also has a keen interest in animal parasites, and in particular in parasites of wildlife. Wild animals are well known to act as reservoir hosts of identified and emerging pathogens that can be transmitted to domestic animals, livestock and humans. We aim to characterise the diversity of parasites that infect Australian wildlife, in particular in hosts such as wild deer and wild dogs. Wild deer and wild dogs have become increasingly prevalent in Australia in recent years and contact with livestock and human populations has increased. We aim to evaluate if these animals constitute a pathogen reservoir population and pose a risk of pathogen transmission.