Dr. Ahmed Aly, from the School of Science and Engineering at AUI, published a research article entitled “Mitochondrial Spermidine Synthase is Essential for Blood-stage growth of the Malaria Parasite,” in the prestigious “Microbiological Research” journal (Q1 journal, impact factor: 5) as a senior and a corresponding author. This paper was co-authored by Mohd Kamil, Umit Kina, Gozde Deveci, Sevim Akyuz, and Ilknur Yilmaz from Aly lab in Beykoz Institute of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in Istanbul, Turkey. This research article represents the first discovery of an enzyme that can synthesize polyamines in the mitochondria of any eukaryotic cell. This study concluded that drugs targeting Spermidine Synthase enzyme in the mitochondrion would be successful in inhibiting the malaria disease by killing the malaria parasites in the blood.
More details can be found at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S094450132200221X?via%3Dihub