Christopher Turlo

Biography

Resistance to antimalarial treatments is rising globally, resulting in sharp increases of therapeutic dosage required to kill and clear parasite load in patients. To counteract antimalarial resistance and extend therapeutic efficacy, the WHO recommends the use of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) as frontline malaria treatments. These treatments couple a fast-acting artemisinin derivative that reduces overall parasite burden and a partner drug that clears more slowly.

My research focuses on how resistance to these antimalarial partner drugs arises, and developing novel methods that correlate clinical phenotypes to in vitro studies. Through this work, I hope to find biomarkers for partner drug resistance that can be monitored as precursors of therapeutic failure in the field.