Malaria Nexus

Dr. Dondorp is the Deputy Director at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Research Unit at the University of Mahidol in Bangkok, Thailand and Professor in Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford. Dr. Dondorp and colleagues published the article "Artesunate versus quinine in the treatment of severe falciparum malaria in African children (AQUAMAT): an open-label, randomised trial", in The Lancet at the end of 2010. In this interview, Dr. Dondorp discusses the clinical trials he performed on the efficacy of artesunate versus quinine in the treatment of African and Asian children with acute malaria, the results he obtained and their implications.

In the latest interview for Malaria Nexus, Andrew Richford speaks to Professor Kevin Kain, Director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health at the University of Toronto. In this interview, Prof. Kain discusses his work on identifying blood biomarkers that would help identifying malaria-infected pregnant women at risk of poor birth outcomes.

In this interview Andrew Richford talks with Matthew Hann, the Communications Manager for Riders for Health, an international non-governmental organization born out of the world of motorcycle racing. Matthew discusses about the foundation of the organization, and how it has developed from idea to its current successful incarnation.

In this interview Andrew Richford talks with Professor Raymond St Leger. Prof. St Leger discusses the work described in his article published in Science in February 2011, and elaborates on how the development of pathogenic fungi can lead to future control of malaria in the field.

In this interview Andrew Richford talks with Prof. Crisanti. He talks about the work in his laboratory towards the genetic transformation of the mosquito vectors of malaria, and how he sees this area of research continuing to develop in the future.

In this interview Andrew Richford talks with Dr Jake Baum from the WEHI Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. Jake talks about the work of his lab looking especially at Plasmodium merozoite erythrocyte invasion.

In this interview Sir Feachem expands on the discussions within his article, and talks of his own views of the future time-line of malaria elimination.

Andy Richford talks with Tue Nguyen, Vice President, Research & Pre-Clinical Development / Leader at the Institute for One World Health and Director of their Malaria Program. Tue describes the rationale behind this project, and elaborates on the collaborative research approach employed with many different organizations that will ultimately lead to its success.

Rob Mather, founder of the Against Malaria Foundation, describes the work and aims of the Foundation, his hopes for the future solutions to control malaria, in particular with the greater distribution of bednets, and the way World Malaria Day can help raise awareness and therefore ultimately aid in the fight against malaria.

Dr Paul Hunt and his group at Institute for Immunology and Infection Research (IIIR), University of Edinburgh, study the genetics of the development of drug resistance by Plasmodium to artemesinin, and their work has recently resulted in the first description of a mutation shown to confer actual resistance to artemisinin in vivo.

Nicholas White, Professor of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, talks about his work and his views on the future of malaria treatments.

Thierry Diagana, project manager for the malaria projects portfolio at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, discusses the research that has led to the development of the Spiroindolones, and talks about the next stages in the research process that can ultimately lead to clinical trials.

Professor Akhtar, from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in India, talks about the ongoing efforts to limit the spread of malaria and other diseases in India, and also discusses the effects of climate change and the consequent spread of vector ranges that is now being seen in some parts of the world, and the implications for the further spread of malaria and dengue.

Michael Riehle from the Department of Entomology, University of Arizona and his research colleagues are looking to develop novel strategies for controlling mosquitoes, and therefore malaria, in particular by examining the basic molecular mechanisms regulating reproduction, immunity, and lifespan in the vector.

Abdoulaye Djimde is chief of laboratory at the Malaria Research and Training Center of the University of Bamako in Mali. In this interview, Dr Djimde talks about his work, and his recent papers published in International Journal for Parasitology

Andrew Richford talks with Philippe Guerin, the Executive Director of WWARN, the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network.

Dr. Beier specializes in the epidemiology and control of vector-borne diseases in developing countries, and has worked extensively in the Middle East, Africa, and the Latin America-Caribbean region and is currently Joint Editor of Acta Tropica.