Hi, my name is Johana Peña and I am a senior at the Brentwood High School. I am currently working with Plasmodium falciparum, a malaria parasite that infects humans. The ability of malaria to adapt to its different hosts has made this situation of emerging relevance. Using various software products such as Blast, Geneious, and R, I plan to analyze the ribosomal protein gene sequences of Plasmodium falciparum and compare them to seven other species of Plasmodium that infect mammals, in order to discover if there are any relationships between the ecology of these species and their hosts. I decided to work in this lab under the guidance of Dr. Liliana Dávalos because I realized that the skills I was going to acquire here would help me in the future, such as in science competition and even in college.