Major attractive features of targeting host cell kinases as a strategy to develop novel antimalarials are threefold: first is the effectiveness of specific inhibitors across phylogenetically distant Plasmodium species, illustrated by the facts (i) that inhibitors against three host cell kinases activated by infection (MEK1, c-Met and B-Raf) display similar in vitro potency on P. falciparum and P. knowlesi, and (ii) that MEK and c-Met inhibitors also have activity against the P. berghei rodent malaria parasite ex vivo (MEK15) and in vivo (c-MET). This evidence concerns the gene MAP2K1 and infection.