Associate Professor, Pathobiology
(Stanford University, 1982)
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Email: feagin@u.washington.edu |
Dr. Feagin’s principal research focus is the molecular biology of apicomplexan parasites, especially gene expression and function in Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii. Much of her work is focused on genes associated with two organelles containing extrachromosomal genes: the mitochondrion and the apicoplast or plastid. The mitochondrial genome is quite small and highly derived, with very small and highly fragmented ribosomal RNAs. Analysis of the structure and assembly of these very unusual rRNAs and their potential to function in protein synthesis has been a major focus. A second focus has been analysis of the plastid, which is presumed to be derived from secondary endosymbiosis of an algal cell by an ancestral apicomplexan. Current effort in this project is directed toward analyzing the mechanism by which plastid proteins that are encoded in the nucleus transit through the four membranes surrounding the plastid to reach their site of function. The role of RNA processing in P. falciparum gene expression is a recently developing research topic.