Mélissa Léger-Abraham

My research program focuses on studying specialized translation mechanisms in parasites that significantly burden global health, including, but not limited to, Leishmania, Babesia, and Plasmodium organisms.

Our efforts notably center on characterizing translation initiation factors and understanding their regulation in a parasite developmental stage-specific manner. Our primary goal is to identify peculiarities during protein synthesis in this important group of human parasites that could guide the rational design of drugs targeting specifically this important process.

Our work is interdisciplinary and involves international and local collaborations (Dr. Michal Shapira, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, Dr. Cyrille Botté, Université Grenoble Alpes, France, and Dr. Ronal Micura, Innsbruck Universität, Austria, and Dr. Manoj Duraisingh, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health). We use methods spanning several disciplines in the laboratory, including molecular and cellular biology and structural biology, such as X-ray crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).