Malaria infections: What and how can mice teach us

• Malaria imposes a horrific public health burden on large parts of the world.
• Substantial gaps in understanding host-Plasmodium interactions still exist.
• Rodent models uncovered aspects of Plasmodium basic biology and malaria pathogenesis.
• Course and outcome of infection depend on the host-mouse strain combination.
• Technological progress prompted further advances in the understanding of malaria infection.

Malaria imposes a horrific public health burden – hundreds of millions of infections and millions of deaths – on large parts of the world. While this unacceptable health burden and its economic and social impact have made it a focal point of the international development agenda, it became consensual that malaria control or elimination will be difficult to attain prior to gain a better understanding of the complex interactions occurring between its main players: Plasmodium, the causative agent of disease, and its hosts. Practical and ethical limitations exist regarding the ability to carry out research with human subjects or with human samples. In this review, we highlight how rodent models of infection have contributed significantly during the past decades to a better understanding of the basic biology of the parasite, host response and pathogenesis.