Malaria

Joseph Vinetz of the University of California, San Diego in the U.S. will attempt to create a new mouse model that mimics both human liver and blood cell function. These new mouse models should allow human malaria parasites to complete their full life cycle in the models and provide a new tool for testing anti-malarial strategies, including drugs and vaccines.

Luiz Ozaki and Gail E. Christie of Virginia Commonwealth University in the U.S. will genetically engineer bacterial viruses to carry peptides that block the development of the malaria parasites, survive in the mosquito gut, and spread through vector populations. If successful, these bacteriophages could be used as "gene dissemination tools" for effective control of the malaria.

Roly Gosling of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom will conduct a pilot study in Tanzania to test whether malaria cases can be contained by treating the households and immediate neighbors of those diagnosed with malaria. The goal of this research is to understand whether such community approaches can clear asymptomatic carriers and eliminate parasites within these "hotspots."

Thomas Baker, Matt Thomas and Andrew Read of Pennsylvania State University in the U.S. will infect malaria mosquitoes with an insect-specific fungus to determine if the infected mosquitoes' sense of smell is suppressed and their ability to find human hosts and transmit malaria is reduced.

When malaria parasites infect different human cells, including liver and red blood cells, it is thought that microRNAs are important developmental cues that facilitate specific events in the parasite life cycle. Jen-Tsan Chi of Duke Medical Center in the U.S. will test whether expressing liver-specific microRNAs within red blood cells will trick the parasite into undergoing liver-stage development, leading to its death.

Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the U.S. proposes to modify bacteria that naturally inhabit the mosquito midgut to secrete proteins that interfere with the development of the malaria parasite in the mosquito that is necessary for malaria transmission.

Larry Walker of the University of Mississippi in the U.S. will test an innovative approach to mitigate the toxicity of primaquine, a promising and powerful malaria drug. Walker will separate the drug into two components, called isomers, to see if a single form retains the ability to eliminate the malaria parasite in its latent liver stages and the mature gametocytes while reducing toxic side effects.

Luke Savage and Dave Newman led engineers at Exeter University in the United Kingdom in a program to develop a handheld, inexpensive battery-powered instrument that can rapidly diagnose malaria. By using magneto-optics to detect the hemozoin crystals produced as a byproduct of malaria parasite digestion of hemoglobin in the red blood cell, they avoid relying on invasive blood sampling.

Erich Cerny of Wissenschaftlicher Fonds Onkologie in Switzerland will test whether inducing antibodies against anti-malarial drugs can significantly prolong the half- life of that drug. Antibodies elicited via immunization may form a reservoir of the active drug for long-lasting treatment for malaria. Such a "small molecule vaccine" has significant implications for efficacy and cost of malaria prevention.

Uri Selome McKakpo of the University of Ghana will develop and test a rapid dipstick test that utilizes monoclonal antibodies to detect parasite antigens present in urine of infected individuals. Using this technology, the team hopes to create a new diagnostic test for malaria that requires minimal training to use and does not depend on invasive blood samples.