Daniel Edward Neafsey
Primary Faculty

Daniel Edward Neafsey

Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Immunology and Infectious Diseases


Overview

Daniel Neafsey's laboratory studies the evolutionary genomics of malaria parasites and mosquito vectors. Prior to becoming a faculty member at Harvard, he led a research group at the Broad Institute, where he retains a role as Associate Director of the Broad Institute's Genomic Center for Infectious Disease. He is excited by the potential for new technology and data to turn the tide against diseases like malaria.

Neafsey's current projects involve the application of comparative genomic and population genetic analyses to Plasmodium malaria parasites and Anopheles mosquitoes to study population structure, natural selection, and genomic factors underlying parasite and vector phenotypes that impact public health. Neafsey's interests also include the use of pathogen polymorphism data to inform vaccine design and understand vaccine efficacy, analysis of drug resistance mechanisms and evolution, the use of clinical genotyping data to interpret disease transmission dynamics, and the development of new genomic protocols and informatics tools to address key questions in infectious disease and global health.

BA, 6/1998, Biology
Loyola University Chicago

Ph.D., 6/2004, Biology
Harvard University


Bibliography

Baseline malaria infection status and RTS,S/AS01E malaria vaccine efficacy.

Juraska M, Early AM, Li L, Schaffner SF, Lievens M, Khorgade A, Simpkins B, Hejazi NS, Benkeser DA, Wang Q, Mercer LD, Adjei S, Agbenyega T, Anderson S, Ansong D, Bii DK, Buabeng PBY, English S, Fitzgerald N, Grimsby J, Kariuki SK, Otieno K, Roman F, Samuels AM, Westercamp N, Ockenhouse CF, Ofori-Anyinam O, Lee CK, MacInnis BL, Wirth DF, Gilbert PB, Neafsey DE.

medRxiv. 2023 Nov 23. PMID: 38045387


News

Malaria genetic surveillance project receives HGI grant

A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health project to conduct genetic surveillance of malaria parasites in China is one of seven projects to receive grants this year from the Harvard Global Institute (HGI). Led by Dyann Wirth,…

Multifaceted approach key to eradicating malaria

October 25, 2017 – Throughout the twentieth century, researchers hoped to discover a “magic bullet” to cure malaria. But today experts realize that efforts to curb or eradicate the mosquito-borne disease must be multifaceted, from research to policy…