Spencer Galen, PhD, Postdoctoral Scientist, Department of Ornithology, ANS

Ecological and Evolutionary Insights Into the 'Magnificent Complexity' of Malaria Parasite Diversity

Malaria parasites are well-known for being a major cause of disease in humans worldwide, though 99% of all described malaria parasite species diversity infects other vertebrates such as birds, squamates, and non-primate mammals. Over the last 20 years molecular approaches have revealed that malaria parasites are far more diverse than what was originally suggested using morphology, with some estimates suggesting the existence of upwards of tens of thousands of species globally. As this 'magnificent complexity' of malaria parasite diversity has come into focus, a number of critical questions remain unanswered. What processes have led to the modern diversity and distribution of malaria parasites, and how do malaria parasite communities assemble from the level of an individual host to across biogeographic regions? Here, I present research on the pattern and process of malaria parasite diversification across spatial and temporal scales to answer these questions. I conclude by discussing the challenges associated with generating genomic data for malaria parasites and other microbial symbionts, as well as my current work to address this problem using a sequence capture approach.

The project website can be found at this link by clicking here. 

If you would like to meet with Spencer Galen, please contact him at scg64@drexel.edu