Melissa Conrad, PhD, MS

Dr. Melissa Conrad is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her Research focuses on the evolution of antimalarial drug resistance in Uganda and the molecular epidemiology of malaria transmission. Working closely with a team of researchers in Uganda, their group evaluates antimalarial resistance in Plasmodium falciparum collected from sites across Uganda. Using molecular and ex vivo approaches, they surveil for emerging or spreading drug resistance, evaluate novel markers of resistance, and seek to better understand mechanisms of resistance. In addition, they perform membrane feeding assays in which mosquitoes are fed malaria-infected blood with the goal of better understanding the human infectious reservoir of malaria and which populations can be targeted to best reduce ongoing malaria transmission.