Sáenz Calderon Fabián

Fabián Sáenz is research professor at the Center for Health Reasearch in Latin America of PUCE in Quito. Sáenz did his doctoral studies in the programme of Infectious Diseases at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, where he earned his PhD in Parasitology and Vector Biology in 2008. Sáenz focused his research on malaria, particularly on the role of the protein MAEBL from Plasmodium falciparum in the invasion by the parasite of red blood cells in the human host and of the salivary glands in the the mosquito Anopheles. Sáenz was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Florida (USF) from 2008 to 2011. During this time he participated in projects related to the discovery of anti-malaria drugs and in studies of drug resistance mechanisms. He was involved in the analysis of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of artemisinin combination therapies. Currently, Dr. Sáenz's work focuses in supporting malaria elimination in Ecuador through the use of molecular tools for diagnosis and the study of population dynamics and drug resistance in the malaria parasites well as the research of natural products with antimalarial activities.