Plasmodium falciparum News and Research

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Genetically modified mosquitoes tested to prevent spread of malaria: Study

According to the latest study in the journal Nature, researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle found that after making specific genetic changes to a few mosquitoes and then allowing them to breed could eventually dramatically reduce the spread of the deadly disease malaria.

20 Apr 2011

Researchers test plants used in traditional African medicine against malaria

The malaria parasite has gradually developed resistance to the most commonly used medicines. To make matters worse, several mosquito species that host and transmit the parasite have become resistant to insecticides, making it difficult to eliminate them from populated areas.

8 Apr 2011

Study finds malaria as a serious problem for patients with landmine injuries

Malaria can complicate the course of disease in poor farmers with landmine injuries in underdeveloped countries, where both malaria and war injuries are frequent causes of illness and death. Tove Heger's doctoral research has charted the extent and effect of malaria on war-injured people and studied the potential for preventing them contracting the disease.

25 Mar 2011

Chemotherapy drugs also kill malaria parasite

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute (GHI) and Inserm (Institut National de la Sant- et de la Recherche M-dicale, the French government agency for biomedical research) has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria. The discovery could quickly open up a whole new strategy for combating this deadly disease.

9 Mar 2011

New insight into malaria

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute and Inserm has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria.

8 Mar 2011

Tropical seaweed's antifungal chemical cues may have promising antimalarial properties for humans

A group of chemical compounds used by a species of tropical seaweed to ward off fungus attacks may have promising antimalarial properties for humans. The compounds are part of a unique chemical signaling system that seaweeds use to battle enemies - and that may provide a wealth of potential new pharmaceutical compounds.

22 Feb 2011

Liquidia to explore PRINT particle technology with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative

Liquidia Technologies today announced a collaboration with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to explore the use of the company's PRINT® particle technology to design next generation malaria vaccines. PRINT technology offers unprecedented control of particle size, shape and chemistry in a highly consistent and scalable manufacturing process, and will be used to deliver a protein in combination with immune stimulating molecules.

10 Feb 2011

Gates Foundation awards USF $5.45M for malaria research

The University of South Florida received $5.45 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The first grant is to create advanced devices that mimic the human liver to better study the life cycle of the malaria parasite - particularly the elusive liver stage where the disease may be most vulnerable to attack.

9 Feb 2011

Newly identified mosquito subspecies highly susceptible to malaria parasite, prefers outdoors

"Researchers have discovered a previously unknown subspecies of mosquito in West Africa that is highly susceptible to the malaria parasite and whose existence may stymie efforts to eradicate the deadly disease," the Los Angeles Times reports (Khan, 2/4).

5 Feb 2011

Genocea announces close of $35 million Series B venture financing round

Genocea Biosciences Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell-based vaccines, today announced that it has closed a $35 million Series B round of venture financing, with new investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), Skyline Ventures and MP Healthcare Venture Management, Inc. (MPH) joining existing investors Polaris Venture Partners, Lux Capital Management, SR One, Cycad Group, Auriga Partners and Morningside Ventures.

3 Jan 2011

Researchers show how malaria parasites infect red blood cells, impede blood flow to organs

Although the incidence of malaria has declined in all but a few countries worldwide, according to a World Health Organization report earlier this month, malaria remains a global threat. Nearly 800,000 people succumbed to the mosquito-borne disease in 2009, nearly all of them in the developing world.

21 Dec 2010

WHO report shows significant progress in global malaria fight, highlights need for continued funding

Since 2008, global malaria control efforts have "helped reduce infections across Africa and [eliminate] the disease in Morocco and Turkmenistan, but a slowdown in funding risks undoing those achievements," according to the WHO's annual malaria report, which was released on Tuesday, Reuters reports (Nebehay, 12/14).

16 Dec 2010

MVI, Merck and NYU collaborate to research potential malaria vaccine

Development of a vaccine to prevent the malaria parasite from entering the human liver is the goal of a new collaboration announced today by global leaders in malaria research and vaccine development. The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), Merck (known outside the US and Canada as MSD), and NYU Langone Medical Center are working together to evaluate an approach targeting a novel part of a major surface protein on the malaria parasite. Malaria is estimated to kill close to 900,000 people each year with the majority of deaths occurring in children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.

14 Dec 2010

New collaboration to develop vaccine to prevent malaria parasite from entering human liver

14 Dec 2010

Portugal research groups awarded Gates Foundation grants

Two research groups in Portugal are to receive Grand Challenges Exploration Grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One of these research teams is led by Miguel Prud-ncio, at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM), and the other by Miguel Soares, at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci-ncia (IGC) together with Henrique Silveira, at the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT).

11 Nov 2010

UC researchers receive four-year grant to study mechanism of malarial parasite replication in RBCs

Today, about half the world's population lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission. The disease is transmitted to humans through bites from mosquitoes, and each year causes hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, with about 1,500 of these in the United States.

8 Nov 2010

Advanced Life Sciences enters CRADA for Restanza with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs in the therapeutic areas of infection, oncology and respiratory diseases, today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement ("CRADA") with The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

2 Nov 2010

Killer malaria to disappear in 10-15 years: Experts

From data gathered around the world experts predict that the deadliest type of malaria can be eradicated in 10 to 15 years. The disease affects half the global population and kills an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide every year. The organism responsible for deaths is commonly Plasmodium falciparum. The parasite is at its most deadly in sub-Saharan Africa, where 90 per cent of malaria fatalities occur.

31 Oct 2010

Mathematical models and maps to eliminate malaria

Two University of Florida researchers and their international colleagues have used mathematical models and maps to estimate the feasibility of eliminating malaria from countries that have the deadliest form of the disease.

29 Oct 2010

Scientists use Affymetrix custom microarray to advance malarial study

Affymetrix, Inc. announced today that an international team of researchers led by scientists at Boston College, the Broad Institute, and Imperial College London used an Affymetrix custom microarray to advance the study of malaria by assessing the variation in genetic structure and detecting known and novel genetic differences among malaria vector mosquito populations.

25 Oct 2010