Discovery of genes that confer resistance to the drug artemisinin is major step forward for treatment of the disease.

Researchers say they have discovered how the malaria parasite gains a foothold inside the human body, causing the life-threatening illness.  The finding could lead to a new treatment for malaria - using a drug that's already in clinical trials for use against another condition.

[CAPE TOWN] Researchers say they have identified a possible single-dose malaria cure molecule, with the potential to cure millions of people and, it is hoped, to prevent person-to-person transmission.

Scientists said Sunday they had unravelled the genetic codes of parasites responsible for the bulk of malaria cases outside Africa, and found they were scarily diversified and may be harder to kill.

A biology lab at Washington University has just cracked the structure and function of a protein that plays a key role in the life of a parasite that killed 655,000 people in 2010.

• Enzymes Possible Targets for New Anti-Malaria Drugs (09/28/2011)
• New Malaria Protein Structure Upends Theory of How Cells Grow and Move (06/14/2011)
• How Sickle Hemoglobin Protects Against Malaria (05/04/2011)
• Genetic markers offer new clues about how malaria mosquitoes evade eradication (10/29/2010)
• "SuperBug": NDM1 New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamas (08/25/2010)