Shobhona Sharma

Saumya Roy July 18, 2005 00:00 IST Shobhona Sharma -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

Malaria is one of India’s biggest problems, and Shobhona Sharma’s work at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, has dramatically enhanced our understanding of the malarial parasite. Sharma’s group is focusing on identifying the antibodies that exist in certain adults who develop a natural immunity to malaria after catching the infection roughly 10 times, and thereby finding a vaccine. These antibodies ensure the amount of malarial parasite in an immune adult is maintained at a level where the person shows no visible symptoms.

But target antigens of the parasite either keep changing form or are highly conserved proteins, which implies that high levels of antibodies raised through vaccination may cause harm as auto-antibodies.Also, natural immunity hinges on the body’s ability to maintain parasites at a level just enough to fend off disease. Mimicking such a situation has been hard. Recently, using optical tweezers to trap malaria-infected red blood cells (RBC), Sharma found that the doughnut-shaped cells folded up and rotated rapidly, unlike normal RBCs....