Assistant Professor Amy Kristine Bei

Country: United States of America

Institution: Yale School of Public Health

Research Areas: Genetics, genomics, immunology, epidemiology

Lab Website: www.bei-lab.com

The Bei Lab’s research interests in Plasmodium – the causative agent of malaria –  lie at the intersection between population genetics, genomics, molecular genetics, epidemiology, and immunology.  Our current research uses a translational systems biology approach to study the impact of antigenic diversity on immune evasion, transmission, and virulence in setting of declining malaria transmission.  We are studying the development of genotype-specific and genotype-transcendent immunity and assess the effect of specific persisting genotypes on neutralizing humoral immune responses and their transmission potential in the mosquito vector.  We also work on malaria vaccine candidate discovery and validation, studying the functional consequences of naturally arising diversity.  We have ongoing research projects in Senegal in addition to many active collaborations in Sub-Saharan African countries in both East and West Africa.