Malaria pathogenesis and management team (PATHOGENESIS) – University of Copenhagen

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Pathogenesis and management of severe malaria team (PATHOGENESIS)

(for a list of the members of this research team, click here)

The PATHOGENESIS team at work

Mission and vision:

To improve the management of severe malaria.

While waiting for an efficient vaccine against malaria we focus our research on the acute treatment of severe malaria. We wish to decrease the morbidity and mortality of severely ill malaria patients and to provide beneficial adjunctive treatment.

Description of our group:

We are a dynamic group consisting of medical doctors and scientists focussing our interest on improving the management of malaria. This work spans a range of activities from basic research in parasitology and pathogenesis, aiming at identifying targets for intervention, to actual clinical trials.

The Pathogenesis group is situated in the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet). We have ongoing and close collaborations with several teams and groups at the CMP including: CELLS, DISCOVERY, DRUGS and SURFACE.

Focus of research:

  • Clinical trials
  • Antimalarials
  • Experimental supportive treatment
  • Malaria pathogenesis
  • Severe malaria anaemia
  • Cerebral malaria
  • Pregnancy-associated malaria
  • Parasite virulence
  • The role of variant surface antigens in pathogenesis and immunity
  • Murine malaria (in vivo)
  • Human malaria (in vitro)

We approach hypotheses using P. falciparum grown in vitro as well as experimental infections with murine Plasmodium species.

We routinely use techniques including flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, bead-based assays (Luminex), electron microscopy, western blotting and qPCR.

External collaborators:

  • George Obeng Adjei et al. (CTCPT, University of Ghana Medical School)
  • Mathias Juul Jørgensen and Christine Benn (Statens Serum Institut/Bandim Health Project)
  • Peter Ellekvist (Dept. Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital)
  • Chris Janse and Blandine Franke-Fayard (Leiden University, Holland)
  • Georges Grau and Valery Combes (University of Sydney, Australia)
  • Marie Helleberg (Dept. Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital)
  • Lisbeth Knudsen (Dept. Public Health, University of Copenhagen)
  • Jens R Nyengaard (Stereology & Electron Microscopy Laboratory and Centre for Stochastic Geometry and Advanced Bioimaging, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus)

If you are a student and looking for a project, please do not hesitate to contact Jørgen Kurtzhals for further information. 

For general information about the PATHOGENESIS team, please contact Jørgen Kurtzhals