Jonathan James Juliano, MD, MSPH
Photo: Jonathan J. Juliano
Elected 2019

Despite significant reductions since 2005, malaria remains a global public health challenge and kills hundreds of thousands of people globally. Interventions, such as improved antimalarials and insecticide treated bed nets, are the primary reason for the reduction of cases globally. Unfortunately, resistance to these interventions is growing and malaria control efforts are stalling or even worsening in some areas. My research focuses on using new genetic and genomic tools to better understand how the malaria parasite evolves to resist currently used interventions. Using a combination of field studies, molecular epidemiology, medical geography, molecular parasitology and genomics, we are trying to understand the ecological and evolutionary context of the resistance to vaccines, drugs and other interventions. The insights we are gaining will help us protect current tools we use to control malaria, as well as help inform how to best utilize new tools on the horizon.