Study Summary

Genetic crosses in malaria parasites are important to show which genes are involved in drug resistance. Until now, it was only possible to generate these using splenectomized chimpanzees, which is ethically unacceptable. The liver humanized FRG mouse is a better alternative, since it allows researchers to quickly isolate the parasites that have successfully completed the liver stage of malaria and identify those that are resistant to drugs after subsequent in vitro selection. Modern sequencing techniques allow the analysis of the recombinant progeny from the original resistant and susceptible parental malaria strains. This proof of principle study shows that researchers can use the liver humanized mouse model to quickly identify which mutations cause drug resistance in malaria samples obtained from the clinic.