Position

Associate Professor

Department of Biochemistry
La Trobe University,
VIC 3086 AUSTRALIA

Tel: 61-3-9479 2158
Fax: 61-3-9479 2467
Email: m.foley@latrobe.edu.au
www.latrobe.edu.au/biochemistry/

Research interests

A major goal of our group is to understand, at the molecular level, the structure and role of two malaria proteins AMA1 and MSP2 in the life cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. P. falciparum malaria parasites (merozoites) bind to and invade human red blood cells, where they grow without being destroyed by the host immune system. Our group uses specific binding peptides from random peptide libraries, and phage display of protein domains, combined with monoclonal antibodies and other molecular approaches helps advance our understanding of the structure and function of proteins and work out their in the life cycle of the pathogen.

Qualifications

BSc Applied Biology/ PhD Biochemistry

Ten Most Significant Publications

1. FOLEY, M., MacGregor, A.N., Kusel, J.R., Garland, P.B., Downie,T., Moore,I. (1986). The Lateral diffusion of lipid probes in the surface membrane of Schistosoma mansoni. J.Cell. Biol. 103: 807 818.

2. FOLEY, M., Brass, J.M., Birmingham, J., Cook, W.R., Garland, P.B., Higgins, C.F. and Rothfield, L.I. (1989). Compartmentalization of the periplasm at cell division sites in Escherichia coli as shown by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments. Mol. Microbiol. 3, 1329 1336.

3. FOLEY, M., Tilley, L., Sawyer, W.H. and Anders, R.F. (1991) The ring infected erythrocyte surface antigen of Plasmodium falciparum binds to spectrin in the erythrocyte membrane skeleton. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 46, 137 148.

4. Nair M, Hinds MG, Coley AM, Hodder AN, FOLEY M, Anders RF, Norton RS. (2002) Structure of domain III of the blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate, Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1). J Mol Biol. 322, 741-53

5. Graves PR, Kwiek JJ, Fadden P, Ray R, Hardeman K, Coley AM, FOLEY M, Haystead TA. (2002) Discovery of novel targets of quinoline drugs in the human purine binding proteome. Mol Pharmacol. 62, 1364-72

6. Li F, Dluzewski A, Coley AM, Thomas A, Tilley L, Anders RF, FOLEY M. (2002) Phage-displayed peptides bind to the malarial protein apical membrane antigen-1 and inhibit the merozoite invasion of host erythrocytes. J Biol Chem. 277, 50303-10

7. Casey, J.L, Coley, A.M, Anders RF, Murphy V.J, Humberstone, K.S, Thomas A, and FOLEY, M. (2004) Antibodies to malaria peptide mimics inhibit Plasmodium falciparum invasion of erythrocytes. Infection and Immun. 72, 1126-1134

8. Harris KS, Casey JL, Coley AM, Masciantonio R, Sabo JK, Keizer DW, Lee EF, McMahon A, Norton RS, Anders RF, FOLEY M. (2005) Binding hot spot for invasion inhibitory molecules on Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1. Infect Immun. 73, 6981-9.

9. Coley AM, Parisi K, Masciantonio R, Hoeck J, Casey JL, Murphy VJ, Harris KS, Batchelor AH, Anders RF, FOLEY M. (2006). The most polymorphic residue on Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 determines binding of an invasion-inhibitory antibody. Infect Immun 74:2628-2636.

10. Coley A.M, Gupta A, Murphy V.J, Bai T, Kim H, FOLEY M, Anders RF and Batchelor AH, (2007) Crystal structure of a parasite growth-inhibitory antibody in complex with the malaria antigen AMA1 from Plasmodium falciparum. PLoS Pathog. 3, 1308-19.

11. Henderson KA, Streltsov VA, Coley AM, Dolezal O, Batchelor AH, Gupta A, Bai T, Murphy VJ, Anders RF, M. FOLEY and Nuttall SD. (2007) Structure of an IgNAR-AMA1 complex: targeting a conserved hydrophobic cleft broadens malarial strain recognition. Structure. 15, 1452-66.

Currently Held Grants

NIH (USA) Inhibitory epitopes in malaria vaccine candidates. A/Prof. Foley, Prof. Norton, & Prof. Anders 2006-2010 (RO1 AI059229-01A1)

NHMRC Structural basis for inhibition of malaria invasion by targeting the apical membrane antigen of Plasmodium falciparum. 2008- 2010 A/Prof. Foley &Dr Coley (487339)

CRC-Biomarker Translation. (2007-2014). La Trobe University is the centre headquarters