A research group in Australia and Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis separately reported that a protein has been identified that is made by malarial parasite to take over human red blood cells. This may help in production of new range of anti-malarial drugs. This research based on the question that how the malaria parasite is able to march into human cells resulted in discovery of malaria's protein that allows the parasite to protect itself from the human immune system.

Dan Goldberg, professor of medicine and of molecular microbiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator said, "The malaria parasite seizes control of and remodels the red blood cell by secreting hundreds of proteins once it's inside. But without this protein, plasmepsin V, those other proteins can't get out of the parasite into the blood cell, and the infectious process stops".

The research has concluded that, the malarial protein plasmepsin V, equivalent to human protein beta secretase can result in a drug that might disable plasmepsin V with very little side effects on human biology. Developing countries lose about 3 million lives because of this mosquito bite disease, Malaria after it damages red blood cells and clog the capillaries that feed the brain and other organs.