معرفی
Kirk W Deitsch is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he has been affiliated since 2010. His work focuses on Plasmodium falciparum biology with particular emphasis on antigenic variation, virulence gene regulation, and epigenetic mechanisms enabling chronic malaria infections.
Education:
- Ph.D., Michigan State University (1994)
- B.S., Central Michigan University (1989)
Research Interests encompass the molecular strategies malaria parasites employ for antigenic switching and immune evasion, including the role of DNA repair pathways, var gene family dynamics, and transcriptional plasticity in clinical isolates. His team investigates how chromatin structure and noncoding RNAs regulate virulence gene expression, with applications in vaccine development and epigenetic drug discovery.
Recent publication trends show a focus on CRISPR-based gene editing in Plasmodium, telomere biology in genome stability, and transcriptional networks controlling antigenic variation. His work combines genomic approaches with epigenetic profiling to understand malaria pathogenesis.
Research Funding includes grants from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (2024-2027) as Principal Investigator, and collaborative projects (2023-2025; 2019-2025) exploring transcriptional switching networks and translesional DNA polymerases in parasite genome diversification.
