John H Adams

John H Adams, PhD, FASTMH, FAAAS Director, USF Genomics Program Co-Director, Center for Global Health & Inter-Disciplinary Research College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL https://health.usf.edu/publichealth/ opens in new tab/window

ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3707-7979 opens in new tab/window

[email protected] opens in new tab/window

My research program focuses on understanding the essential metabolic processes important for infection and pathogenesis of malaria parasites. The research seeks to better understand the complex biology that enables parasites to survive and to identify vulnerable biological processes to support translational discovery projects for Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. We use random piggyBac mutagenesis of P. falciparum and other species for functional profiling gene functions and pathways. Even though the conservation of orthologs is high among Plasmodium species, the functional essentiality of genes has changed in different hosts, suggesting species evolution was conditionally linked to adaptive rewiring of conserved metabolic networks for different hosts and their intracellular microenvironments.