Dr. Maleki is currently a Research Scientist at the USDA focusing her work on peanut allergy and the reduction of peanut allergenicity through: processing, plant breeding and molecular biology. She is also working on understanding the structure and function of allergens, detection of allergens, and allergen immunology. Her overall accomplishments include: (1) the cloning, mutation, expression and purification of the myogenic transcription factors and defining the multiple thermodynamic equilibria that explains the interaction of these proteins with each other and with specific regulatory DNA sequences, which may lead to the use of these transcription factors in repair and rejuvenation of muscle; (2) high impact publications and two patent applications filed analyzing the relationship of the structure, function and immunological responses to the major peanut allergens; (3) studies involved in understanding and developing novel, T-cell mediated, immunotherapeutic treatments for peanut allergy; (4) being one of the first individuals in the field to perform high impact research describing the mechanistic relationship of thermal processing and allergenic behavior of food proteins. These studies were then taken to a more advanced level by unequivocally demonstrating that roasting enhances the allergenic properties of peanuts 90-fold over raw peanuts, alters T-cell stimulation and sensitization of mice.