AUTHOR=Chahine Zeinab , Le Roch Karine G. TITLE=Decrypting the complexity of the human malaria parasite biology through systems biology approaches JOURNAL=Frontiers in Systems Biology VOLUME=2 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-biology/articles/10.3389/fsysb.2022.940321 DOI=10.3389/fsysb.2022.940321 ISSN=2674-0702 ABSTRACT=

The human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is a unicellular protozoan responsible for over half a million deaths annually. With a complex life cycle alternating between human and invertebrate hosts, this apicomplexan is notoriously adept at evading host immune responses and developing resistance to all clinically administered treatments. Advances in omics-based technologies, increased sensitivity of sequencing platforms and enhanced CRISPR based gene editing tools, have given researchers access to more in-depth and untapped information about this enigmatic micro-organism, a feat thought to be infeasible in the past decade. Here we discuss some of the most important scientific achievements made over the past few years with a focus on novel technologies and platforms that set the stage for subsequent discoveries. We also describe some of the systems-based methods applied to uncover gaps of knowledge left through single-omics applications with the hope that we will soon be able to overcome the spread of this life-threatening disease.