Nearly half of the world's population lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission.
Our research investigates how the malaria parasite interacts with its human host through comparative and integrative multi-omic studies in India and Ethiopia.
T. vaginalis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted parasite that causes problems during pregnancy and reproductive cancers in men and women across the globe.
We study the extraordinary genomes of T. vaginalis and related trichomonads and their gene expression in populations of humans and birds.
Studying infectious disease microbes in the very populations that they are found in is key to making research relevant and real-world applicable.
We partner with colleagues at malaria field sites in Ethiopia and India, and STD clinics in cities in the USA.
We use the tools of comparative and integrative genomics – whole genome sequencing and ‘omics technologies, bioinformatics, population genetics, and molecular biology – to study the biology and evolution of different species of parasite in their natural environments.
Parasites include eukaryotic microbes that cause some of the world’s most devastating diseases. We study species of the malaria parasite Plasmodium, and Trichomonas vaginalis that causes the most common, non-viral, human sexually transmitted infection.
We led the projects to sequence the first reference genomes of Plasmodium falciparum (Gardner et al., Nature, 2002), Plasmodium vivax (Carlton et al., Nature 2008), Plasmodium yoelii (Carlton et al., Nature 2002), Plasmodium cynomolgi (Tachibana, Nature Genetics, 2012), and the first T. vaginalis genome (Carlton et al., Science, 2007).
We have also characterized the genomes of parasites from hundreds of clinical isolates collected around the globe (Neafsey et al., Nature Genetics, 2012; Hupalo et al., Nature Genetics, 2016; Bradic et al., Genome Biology & Evolution, 2017), as well as urban samples from ATMs, sewage, and the pets and pests of New Yorkers (Bik et al., mSphere, 2016; Maritz et al., PLoS One, 2017; Maritz et al., Microbial Ecology, 2017).
Our recent work brings the power of modern methods of multi-omics to study how parasite and human genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, metabolomes and lipidomes are modified, depleted or amplified during an infection (Nikulkova et al., Trends Parasitol 2024; Attallah N, Trends Parasitol 2026; Abdrabou W, et al., Genome Biol. 2026; Nikulkova, et al., MedRxiv 2026).
Director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
Previously: Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor Faculty Director of Genomics at the Center for Genomics & Systems Biology Department of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences Department of Epidemiology, College of Global Public Health, New York University
After graduating with a Ph.D. in Genetics from Edinburgh University in 1995, Dr. Carlton took up research positions at the University of Florida (1997-2000), at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Institutes of Health (2000-2001), and at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, 2001-2006).
From 2006-2024 her group was based at New York University where she was Program Director of an NIH-funded International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research in India.
Since 2023, she has been at Johns Hopkins University as the Director of the Malaria Research Institute in the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Krystal Sotolongo 2008, Alice Ford 2009, Mark Jelcic 2009, Kevin Dell’Aquila 2011, Kharisa Rachmasari 2012, Grace Tooley 2013-2015, Elisha Wang 2013, Sarah Batbold 2014/15, Dhriti Tandon 2015, Stephen Coyle 2015, Aaron Dank 20117, Aditya Bhagirath 2016, Giovanni Cervine 2018 Justin Huang 2018, Kaitlyn Julian 2019, Maansi Jayade 2019-2020, Jennifer Stolarczuk 2021-2022, Sophie Specter 2019-2022
Sven Rosandic, 2016; Volney French, 2013; Emre Aksoy, 2011
Tyler Clabby, Shipra Mittal, Priyanka Ganesh, Amanda Heim, Rebecca Susko, Shelby Bidwell
The Carlton Lab loves to sequence microbes! We utilize the latest genomics technology developed by biotech companies Illumina, Oxford Nanopore Technology, Phase Genomics etc., and tweak the protocols and fine-tune the methodology to use out in the real world in the USA, India, and Ethiopia.
This course describes the developing relationship between genomics and genomic technologies with the health of populations in a global context. Topics covered include introduction to global public health; how to sequence a genome; omic technologies and their applications; genomics of humans and the microbiome; infectious disease genomics; human mobility and genomics; and the ethical, legal and social implications of genomics.
How DNA from a single patient in Ethiopia can shed light on the big picture of malaria. With Jane Carlton, Delenasaw Yewhalaw, and Francisco Callejas Hernandez
Considered one of the “big three” global infectious diseases—together with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis—malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax continues to substantially affect the poorest communities of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Multi-year project to improve the genome sequence of T. vaginalis and compare with six other trich genomes to conjecture what genes may have been involved when the ancestor jumped from the GI tract of birds to the human reproductive tract.
Determining the Origins of Repeat Trichomonas vaginalis Infections Using Clinical Versus Genotype-Informed Criteria.
A cornucopia of research resources for the fourth rodent malaria parasite species.
Small RNAs Are Implicated in Regulation of Gene and Transposable Element Expression in the Protist Trichomonas vaginalis.
The burden of asymptomatic and submicroscopic malaria in India.
