Carsten Wrenger, PhD.

Carsten Wrenger, PhD, Associate Professor for Molecular Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Dr Wrenger has recently entered the Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of São Paulo (USP). Besides his work at USP he is also the coordinator of the international student network programmes MALAR-ASP and INFECTBIO-USP-WWU between the Universities of Groningen, The Netherlands and Münster, Germany, respectively.  His line of research focuses on drug discovery against human pathogens such as Plasmodium falciparum and Staphylococcus aureus. For drug target analyses his laboratory applies the transfection technique to modify the malaria parasite and enable protein trafficking studies using GFP chimeras. In addition to molecular and cell biological approaches he is also carrying out rational drug design by crystal structure analysis of plasmodial and S. aureus-derived proteins to study the molecular mechanisms of drug-target-interactions with collaborators in Groningen and Hamburg. He obtained his Diploma in Biology from the University of Bielefeld (1999), and performed his doctoral studies in biochemistry at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, conducting research on the polyamine metabolism in the malaria parasite (2002). Prior joining USP, he pursued postdoctoral research in molecular parasitology at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee, Scotland and set up his group in the Department of Biochemistry, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine where he evaluated the vitamin metabolism as drug target in P. falciparum and MRSA