Our group is interested in malaria and symbiosis - two topics that seem somewhat far apart but are in fact strangely interconnected. Our research has led to a paradigm shift in understanding the malaria parasite. We had a central role in discovering that the malaria parasite is a kind of microscopic plant.  We found the remnants of a plant-like chloroplast in the parasite, which is now providing novel ways to tackle this serious disease and revealed that the large group of parasites to which malaria belongs arose from symbiotic algae that converted to parasitism, probably as much as 500 million years ago.

The group is in the School of BioSciences (formerly Botany), University of Melbourne, Australia. The group is led by Professor Geoff McFadden.

We operate malaria culture facilities, mouse malaria models, a Toxoplasma culture facility, and an Anopheles mosquito colony.  BioSciences also has everything that opens & shuts for molecular and cellular biology, proteomics, metabolomics and microscopy.