 Every year, at least half a million people die of malaria. That's more than the population of Canberra dying every single year. 90% of these cases are from Africa. I'm Nigerian, so I know the disease too well. My malaria comes with high fever, terrible headaches and vomiting. Finally, sweat will pour all over me and I'll feel dull and lifeless. When an infected female mosquito bites you, it also injects saliva containing the plasmodium parasites. Inside each parasite is an army, the army of the dead. The army of the dead are the parasites protein that help it survive and multiply in your body. The malaria parasite is very stubborn and always fights back at every drug we have. Why is this so? It's because we've been targeting its food soldiers instead of the commander. These drugs have been great at saving lives and buying us time. But to defeat the army of the dead, we must kill their commander, which is a key protein called heat shock protein 90. This protein helps the army survive drastic changes in temperature as the parasite travels from the cold-blooded mosquito to our warm-blooded body. But to target this protein, I need to know what it looks like. So how do I do this? I use magnets. The strength of the interaction between two magnets depends on the distance between them. The closer the magnets, the stronger the interaction. Based on this principle, I attach tiny magnetic labels at different parts of the commander protein. And using a technique called Electron-Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, I can measure precise distances between different parts of the protein. With this information, I can then map out the overall shape of the protein and also know how far apart it raises its arms while bringing the troops to life. Knowing the shape of the protein means that we can design complementary drugs with complementary shapes that combine to it, just like sticking a dagger into its heart, and this will bring down the army and lead to the death of the parasite. The tiny magnets can also access local spies for how the commander responds to potential drugs. The parasite has already developed resistance to our last drug, so I live in fear that if this resistance spreads to Africa, many more people will die. My research will help us develop new drugs to defeat the army of the dead and bring this continuous battle to an end. Thank you.