Rapid Clinical Sampling, Pooling and Targeted Deep Sequencing of Malaria Parasites: A Novel Model for Effective Malaria Molecular Surveillance

Anita Ghansah, Senior Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana, will build a cost-efficient malaria molecular surveillance system with high spatial and temporal resolution that covers the entire country. Dr. Ghansah is an internationally-trained genetic epidemiologist. Recognizing the power of genomics and bioinformatics approaches for bolstering malaria surveillance in Ghana, she has been a pioneer of bioinformatics training in the country. She introduced expertise for genotyping molecular markers of drug resistance, which led to a change in the national policy on first-line treatment of malaria. She will build the relevant personnel and infrastructure capacity for this project, and lead a research team and staff effort to rapidly monitor key molecular markers of drug and diagnostic resistance in blood samples from malaria patients using high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics approaches. This will produce country-wide, near real-time surveillance data to better inform the control and elimination efforts of the National Malaria Control Program of Ghana.