University of Notre Dame · BiologyMalaria Drug Resistance Lab
Michael T Ferdig · Notre Dame, Indiana
Research Focus
Dr. Michael Ferdig's lab focuses on understanding drug resistance in malaria, particularly how the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, adapts to treatments like artemisinin and its partner drug lumefantrine. Through experimental genetic crosses and advanced genetic techniques, the team seeks to pinpoint the specific genes that contribute to resistance. This research is crucial for public health, as rising drug resistance threatens malaria control efforts in Africa, where the disease remains a major health crisis.
malariadrug resistancegenetic crossesPlasmodium falciparumartemisininlumefantrinemulti-omicsCRISPR
Research Aims
3AIM 01Use genetic crosses to identify genes associated with artemisinin resistance.
AIM 02Analyze drug-resistant malaria isolates to determine genomic variations.
AIM 03Investigate the genetic basis of lumefantrine resistance using multi-omics approaches.
Skills the Lab Values
PCRmouse modelsgenome sequencingsingle-cell RNA sequencingbulk RNA sequencingproteomicsgenetic mappingphenotype analysisCRISPR gene editing
Output against the department
Publications164top 40% of dept.416th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations9.2ktop 41% of dept.427th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.