Kharizta Wiradiputri
About
Kharizta Wiradiputri obtained her PhD in Medical Biology (majoring in Parasitology) from University of Melbourne, Australia in 2023 under the mentorship of Professor Alan Cowman and Associate Professor Chris Tonkin. She conducted her research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, working on gastrointestinal parasite, Cryptosporidium parvum. She explored the roles and druggability of aspartyl proteases in Cryptosporidium parvum through multidisciplinary approaches including biochemistry, proteomics, high-throughput screening and animal studies.
She joined Fidock Lab in 2024 as a postdoctoral research scientist with a primary interest in understanding the mechanism of Chloroquine and Quinine resistance by Plasmodium falciparum. Her work involves molecular biology, genetic manipulation by CRISPR/Cas9 and phenotypic analysis. Through her work, she aims to gain more insights on parasite biology that is critical for mediating drug resistance and more importantly, discover novel therapeutic strategies to treat malaria.
At her leisure times, she enjoys exploring new restaurants and bars with her husband (not that New York is too distracting for her). She loves watching sports – basketball, rugby, soccer and is now getting more into football and hockey. She loves travelling, especially to tropical islands for the water sports while sipping cold beers or pina colada!