Portrait of a smiling middle-aged man with short gray hair, wearing a light purple collared shirt, against a dark background.

Ashley Vaughan, BSc, PhD

Associate Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics

Principle Investigator, Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Ashley.Vaughan@seattlechildrens.org

Ashley received his PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and studies the disease malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites. Ashley and his team have shown the importance of the parasite’s fatty acid synthetic pathway for sporozoite and liver stage maturation. The team also researches how to elicit the most protective immune response after vaccination with genetically attenuated parasites. Ashley and his team have led significant advances in the use of human liver-chimeric mouse models for studying human malaria parasites. This includes complete liver stage development and the transition to blood stage malaria in the mouse for the human malarias Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. The team have also used this mouse model for the creation of experimental Plasmodium falciparum genetic crosses, a significant advance that aids in our understanding of P. falciparum drug resistance and linking genotypes to phenotypes. More recently, the Vaughan lab has used the human liver-chimeric mouse model to study the formation of the P. vivax dormant liver stage hypnozoite as well as hypnozoite persistence and activation. Ashley continues to be fascinated by basic parasite pre-erythrocytic biology – the mosquito and liver stages of the life cycle and to this end the team also use rodent malaria models for parasite transgenesis to understand how the parasite interacts with its vector and host during sporozoite and liver stage development. Ashley collaborates with Dr. Kappe and Sather at the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research. He also collaborates both nationally and internationally with malaria experts including Dr. Jetsumon Sattabongkot at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, a leading expert in the field of P. vivax research.

Outside of the lab, Ashley is a keen hiker, cook, traveler, gardener, theater goer, live music fan and scuba diver. He enjoys all of these pastimes with and without his husband, Rafael.

Recent Publications

  1. Dietrich MH, Chmielewski J, Chan LJ, Tan LL, Adair A, Lyons FMT, Gabriela M, Lopaticki S, Dite TA, Dagley LF, Pazzagli L, Gupta P, Kamil M, Vaughan AM, Rojrung R, Abraham A, Mazhari R, Longley RJ, Zeglinski K, Gouil Q, Mueller I, Fabb SA, Shandre-Mugan R, Pouton CW, Glukhova A, Shakeel S, Tham WH. Cryo-EM structure of endogenous Plasmodium falciparum Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 fertilization complex. Science. 2025 Sep 11;389(6765):eady0241. doi: 10.1126/science.ady0241. Epub 2025 Sep 11. PubMed PMID: 40743371.

  2. Sievert MAC, Qahash T, Singh PP, Shoue DA, Checkley LA, Brenneman KV, Cassady Z, Kumar S, Li X, Nosten FH, Anderson TJC, Vaughan AM, Romero-Severson J, Ferdig MT. Measuring growth, resistance, and recovery after artemisinin treatment of Plasmodium falciparum in a single semi-high-throughput assay. Malar J. 2025 Aug 14;24(1):263. doi: 10.1186/s12936-025-05481-9. PubMed PMID: 40814090; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12355871.

  3. Aniweh Y, Dziekan J, Jore MM, Kho S, Mancio-Silva L, Merrick CJ, Nahrendorf W, Ralph SA, Vaughan AM, Verhoef JMJ. BioMalPar at 21 - a coming of age for malaria research and interventions. Trends Parasitol. 2025 Sep;41(9):703-708. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2025.07.011. Epub 2025 Aug 6. PubMed PMID: 40774865.

  4. Li X, Jutzeler KS, Abatiyow BA, Rezakhani N, Haile MT, Leeb AS, Patel H, Kappe SHI, Nosten F, Cheeseman IH, Ferdig MT, Anderson TJC, Vaughan AM, Kumar S. Advantages of outcrossing in Plasmodium falciparum: insights from genetic crosses using fluorescent labelled parasites. bioRxiv. 2025 Jul 31;. doi: 10.1101/2025.07.18.665596. PubMed PMID: 40766536; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12324223.

  5. Gupta P, Rezakhani N, Pazzagli L, Patel H, Zanghi G, Kamil M, Watson A, Vigdorovich V, Camargo N, Knutson E, Sather DN, Vaughan AM, Swearingen KE. Glycosylation of Plasmodium falciparum TRAP is essential for infection of mosquito salivary glands. bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 26;. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.26.658380. PubMed PMID: 40667256; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12262273.

  6. Lam M, Probst A, Torres L, Lantigua AA, Fishbaugher ME, Kumar JR, Saldivia M, Torres A, Hegde S, Aleshnick M, Jennison C, Roberson SGH, Joyner CJ, Vaughan AM, Wilder BK, Manneville C, Flannery EL, Marcellin D, Nyfeler B, Thiel Z, Mikolajczak SA, Harupa A, Mitchell G. HaloPROTAC3 does not trigger the degradation of the halotagged parasitophorous vacuole membrane protein UIS4 during Plasmodium liver stage development. Sci Rep. 2025 May 26;15(1):18323. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98257-9. PubMed PMID: 40419780; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12106710.

  7. Aleshnick M, Hegde S, Jennison C, Mikolajczak SA, Vaughan AM, Haumpy D, Martinson T, Straimer J, Wilder BK. Generation of a Transgenic Plasmodium cynomolgi Parasite Expressing Plasmodium vivax Circumsporozoite Protein for Testing P. vivax CSP-Based Malaria Vaccines in Non-Human Primates. Vaccines (Basel). 2025 May 17;13(5). doi: 10.3390/vaccines13050536. PubMed PMID: 40432145; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12115629.

  8. Wong W, Wang L, Schaffner SF, Li X, Cheeseman I, Anderson TJC, Vaughan A, Ferdig M, Volkman SK, Hartl DL, Wirth DF. MalKinID: A classification model for identifying malaria parasite genealogical relationships using identity-by-descent. Genetics. 2025 Feb 5;229(2). doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyae197. PubMed PMID: 39579070; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11796457.

  9. Zanghí G, Patel H, Smith JL, Camargo N, Bae Y, Hesping E, Boddey JA, Venugopal K, Marti M, Flannery EL, Chuenchob V, Fishbaugher ME, Mikolajczak SA, Roobsoong W, Sattabongkot J, Gupta P, Pazzagli L, Rezakhani N, Betz W, Hayes K, Goswami D, Vaughan AM, Kappe SHI. Genome-wide gene expression profiles throughout human malaria parasite liver stage development in humanized mice. Nat Microbiol. 2025 Feb;10(2):569-584. doi: 10.1038/s41564-024-01905-5. Epub 2025 Jan 31. PubMed PMID: 39891010; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11790487.

  10. Dacon C, Moskovitz R, Swearingen K, Da Silva Pereira L, Flores-Garcia Y, Aleshnick M, Kanatani S, Flynn B, Molina-Cruz A, Wollenberg K, Traver M, Kirtley P, Purser L, Dillon M, Bonilla B, Franco A, Petros S, Kritzberg J, Tucker C, Paez GG, Gupta P, Shears MJ, Pazzi J, Edgar JM, Teng AA, Belmonte A, Oda K, Doumbo S, Krymskaya L, Skinner J, Li S, Ghosal S, Kayentao K, Ongoiba A, Vaughan A, Campo JJ, Traore B, Barillas-Mury C, Wijayalath W, Idris A, Crompton PD, Sinnis P, Wilder BK, Zavala F, Seder RA, Wilson IA, Tan J. Protective antibodies target cryptic epitope unmasked by cleavage of malaria sporozoite protein. Science. 2025 Jan 3;387(6729):eadr0510. doi: 10.1126/science.adr0510. Epub 2025 Jan 3. PubMed PMID: 39745947; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11804177.

  11. Winnicki AC, Dietrich MH, Yeoh LM, Carias LL, Roobsoong W, Drago CL, Malachin AN, Redinger KR, Feufack-Donfack LB, Baldor L, Jung NC, McLaine OS, Skomorovska-Prokvolit Y, Orban A, Opi DH, Kirtley P, Nielson K, Aleshnick M, Zanghi G, Rezakhani N, Vaughan AM, Wilder BK, Sattabongkot J, Tham WH, Popovici J, Beeson JG, Bosch J, King CL. Potent AMA1-specific human monoclonal antibody against Plasmodium vivax Pre-erythrocytic and Blood Stages. Nat Commun. 2024 Dec 4;15(1):10556. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53848-4. PubMed PMID: 39632799; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11618605.

  12. Sievert MAC, Singh PP, Shoue DA, Checkley LA, Brenneman KM, Qahash T, Cassady Z, Kumar S, Li X, Nosten FH, Anderson TJC, Vaughan AM, Romero-Severson J, Ferdig MT. Measuring Growth, Resistance, and Recovery after Artemisinin Treatment of Plasmodium falciparum in a single semi-high-throughput Assay. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 11;. doi: 10.1101/2024.11.11.623064. PubMed PMID: 39605531; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11601240.

  13. Wong W, Wang L, Schaffner SS, Li X, Cheeseman I, Anderson TJC, Vaughan A, Ferdig M, Volkman SK, Hartl DL, Wirth DF. MalKinID: A Likelihood-Based Model for Identifying Malaria Parasite Genealogical Relationships Using Identity-by-Descent. bioRxiv. 2024 Jul 16;. doi: 10.1101/2024.07.12.603328. PubMed PMID: 39071294; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11275886.

  14. Kane J, Li X, Kumar S, Button-Simons KA, Vendrely Brenneman KM, Dahlhoff H, Sievert MAC, Checkley LA, Shoue DA, Singh PP, Abatiyow BA, Haile MT, Nair S, Reyes A, Tripura R, Peto TJ, Lek D, Mukherjee A, Kappe SHI, Dhorda M, Nkhoma SC, Cheeseman IH, Vaughan AM, Anderson TJC, Ferdig MT. A Plasmodium falciparum genetic cross reveals the contributions of pfcrt and plasmepsin II/III to piperaquine drug resistance. mBio. 2024 Jul 17;15(7):e0080524. doi: 10.1128/mbio.00805-24. Epub 2024 Jun 24. PubMed PMID: 38912775; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11253641.

  15. Goswami D, Patel H, Betz W, Armstrong J, Camargo N, Patil A, Chakravarty S, Murphy SC, Sim BKL, Vaughan AM, Hoffman SL, Kappe SH. A replication competent Plasmodium falciparum parasite completely attenuated by dual gene deletion. EMBO Mol Med. 2024 Apr;16(4):723-754. doi: 10.1038/s44321-024-00057-7. Epub 2024 Mar 21. PubMed PMID: 38514791; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11018819.

  16. Jennison C, Armstrong JM, Dankwa DA, Hertoghs N, Kumar S, Abatiyow BA, Naung M, Minkah NK, Swearingen KE, Moritz R, Barry AE, Kappe SHI, Vaughan AM. Plasmodium GPI-anchored micronemal antigen is essential for parasite transmission through the mosquito host. Mol Microbiol. 2024 Mar;121(3):394-412. doi: 10.1111/mmi.15078. Epub 2023 Jun 14. PubMed PMID: 37314965; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11076100.

  17. Amambua-Ngwa A, Button-Simons KA, Li X, Kumar S, Brenneman KV, Ferrari M, Checkley LA, Haile MT, Shoue DA, McDew-White M, Tindall SM, Reyes A, Delgado E, Dalhoff H, Larbalestier JK, Amato R, Pearson RD, Taylor AB, Nosten FH, D'Alessandro U, Kwiatkowski D, Cheeseman IH, Kappe SHI, Avery SV, Conway DJ, Vaughan AM, Ferdig MT, Anderson TJC. Chloroquine resistance evolution in Plasmodium falciparum is mediated by the putative amino acid transporter AAT1. Nat Microbiol. 2023 Jul;8(7):1213-1226. doi: 10.1038/s41564-023-01377-z. Epub 2023 May 11. PubMed PMID: 37169919; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10322710.

  18. Zanghi G, Patel H, Camargo N, Smith JL, Bae Y, Flannery EL, Chuenchob V, Fishbaugher ME, Mikolajczak SA, Roobsoong W, Sattabongkot J, Hayes K, Vaughan AM, Kappe SHI. Global gene expression of human malaria parasite liver stages throughout intrahepatocytic development. bioRxiv. 2023 Jan 5;. doi: 10.1101/2023.01.05.522945. PubMed PMID: 36711670; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9881933.

  19. Richie TL, Church LWP, Murshedkar T, Billingsley PF, James ER, Chen MC, Abebe Y, K C N, Chakravarty S, Dolberg D, Healy SA, Diawara H, Sissoko MS, Sagara I, Cook DM, Epstein JE, Mordmüller B, Kapulu M, Kreidenweiss A, Franke-Fayard B, Agnandji ST, López Mikue MA, McCall MBB, Steinhardt L, Oneko M, Olotu A, Vaughan AM, Kublin JG, Murphy SC, Jongo S, Tanner M, Sirima SB, Laurens MB, Daubenberger C, Silva JC, Lyke KE, Janse CJ, Roestenberg M, Sauerwein RW, Abdulla S, Dicko A, Kappe SHI, Sim BKL, Duffy PE, Kremsner PG, Hoffman SL. Sporozoite immunization: innovative translational science to support the fight against malaria. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2023 Jan-Dec;22(1):964-1007. doi: 10.1080/14760584.2023.2245890. Epub 2023 Aug 11. Review. PubMed PMID: 37571809; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10949369.

  20. Oduselu GO, Afolabi R, Ademuwagun I, Vaughan A, Adebiyi E. Structure-based pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening, and molecular dynamics simulation studies for identification of Plasmodium falciparum 5-aminolevulinate synthase inhibitors. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022;9:1022429. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.1022429. eCollection 2022. PubMed PMID: 36714108; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9877529.