Former Molecular Biology graduate student and member of the Zakian lab Wai-Hong Tham has been named an International Research Scholar by HHMI, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation,who sponsor this award for early-career scientists poised to advance biomedical research across the globe.  Wai-Hong is studying how malaria parasites interact with their human hosts. Specifically, she wants to understand how Plasmodium vivax, the dominant malaria parasite in countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa, recognizes and invades red blood cells inside the human body.