Benjamin Liffner

My personal passion lies in understanding and overcoming issues that principally affect the world’s most poverty-stricken and disadvantaged populations. A vital factor that inhibits development of impoverished regions is the disproportionate prevalence of infectious diseases, particularly those caused by parasites. Currently my research focuses on malaria, a deadly and financially detrimental disease, which results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children each year and costs billions of dollars for the countries that are least able to afford it. More specifically, my PhD project concerns the molecular dynamics of red blood cell invasion by the deadliest human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. We aim to further understand this vital process in the parasite lifecycle, with the goals of identifying novel antimalarial targets and informing future vaccine design.