John Kane
Graduate Student
University of Notre Dame
John is a 5th year Ph.D. student in the Ferdig laboratory, where his research focuses on in vitro resistance to artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) partner drugs in Plasmodium falciparum. Specifically, he is interested in the genetic determinants of piperaquine (PPQ) resistance and the complex epistatic interactions between contributing genes.
His work leverages the KH004×Mal31 genetic cross, analyzing both parents and progeny to understand resistance mechanisms. Currently, John is utilizing progeny from this cross to examine the specific impact of plasmepsin II/III copy number variation and elucidate the mechanisms behind the characteristic bimodal dose-response curve observed in PPQ-resistant parasites. Additionally, John studies genotypic variation in pfaat1 across global parasite populations, examining how broader genetic background shapes this variation and its impact on drug susceptibility.