About the Authors

Jeong Joo Kim

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Biochemistry, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany

Christian Flueck

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Eugen Franz

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany

Eduardo Sanabria-Figueroa

Current Address: Molecular & Systems Pharmacology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Eloise Thompson

Affiliation Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Robin Lorenz

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany

Daniela Bertinetti

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany

David A. Baker

Affiliation Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Friedrich W. Herberg

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany

Choel Kim

ckim@bcm.edu

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The authors also have no affiliation or competing interest with the Eli Lilly company. Eli Lilly has no role in designing and conducting this study. This does not alter our adherence to all PLOS Pathogens policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JJK CK. Performed the experiments: JJK CF EF ESF ET. Analyzed the data: JJK CF EF RL DB DAB FWH CK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DAB FWH CK. Wrote the paper: JJK CF DAB CK. Designed the constructs for crystallization and purification protocols: JJK. Identified and optimized crystallization conditions: JJK ESF. Solved the structures and refined the crystallographic models: JJK. Built and purified mutant proteins: JJK EF ESF. Generated the KD/EC50 measurements using fluorescence polarization: JJK EF. Designed activation assay and measured activation constants: EF RL DB FWH. Generated transgenic lines of malaria parasite and performed in vivo experiments: CF ET DAB.