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In this talk, I will first briefly describe my research path and the key problems I have addressed in distinct biological systems. For the rest of the talk, I will focus on two important aspects of malaria blood-stage infection where the malaria parasite multiplies by invading healthy red blood cells (RBC). Firstly, I will consider the case when malaria-infected RBC (iRBC) interacts with the endothelial cells. I would answer important questions such as how would cell deformability, cell adhesion and fluid shear stress induce distinct dynamical adhesion states using multiscale modelling of iRBC in flow. Secondly, I will consider the case of parasite invasion into the host cell, especially parasite alignment at the RBC membrane before the invasion process starts. I will show how the parasite uses both RBC deformability and the stochastic nature of its adhesion dynamics for optimal alignment. I will also discuss the role of parasite shape in the alignment process. In the end, I will discuss my potential research directions. |