ALLELE Lecture: Plants May Hold Key to Cure for Malaria

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Malaria is the leading cause of death and illness worldwide, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the cure for this health epidemic may be found in algae, according to Dr. Mark Farmer, the next guest speaker of The Alabama Lecture of Life’s Evolution, or ALLELE, series at The University of Alabama.

In his talk, “Malaria: The Killer Plant,” Farmer will discuss how knowing more about cellular biology and the evolutionary relationship between algae and parasites may help scientists find answers to modern-day health problems such as malaria. The lecture, which will conclude the 2007-2008 ALLELE series, will be April 24 at 7:30 p.m. in 127 Biology Building Auditorium on the UA campus.

“The thing that’s most interesting is the unexpected directions that evolution gives us in terms of better understanding the microbial world and the direct impact it has on human health,” said Farmer. “By approaching biology from an evolutionary perspective, we are making all kinds of new and unexpected discoveries, and it opens up new ways of thinking that we never even considered 15 years ago.”

Farmer, professor of cellular biology at the University of Georgia, is an expert in the evolutionary relationships between groups of protists (organisms that cannot be classified as animals, plants or fungi) and has co-authored more than a dozen articles on the subject which have appeared in such publications as Evolution and Nature.

Farmer received his undergraduate degree in biology from Colgate University in 1981 and his doctoral degree from Rutgers University in botany/plant pathology in 1988. He is a member of the Biomedical & Health Sciences Institute and is part of a project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, to enhance the study of poorly known organisms.

The third year of the ALLELE series is made possible, in large part, by private gifts from Lou Perry of La Jolla, Calif., Eric Hopkins of Austin, Texas, and The Barbara and Frank Peters Foundation of Corona del Mar, Calif. In addition to private support, The ALLELE series is supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and the departments of anthropology, biological sciences, history, philosophy and psychology.

The lectures are designed for a non-technical audience and are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.bama.ua.edu/~evolution/alleleindex.html.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All-American Teams.