Malaria is a disease that afflicts hundreds of millions of people globally and kills about a million children each year. Malaria is widespread, but is more prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas where environmental conditions provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes and where control efforts are lacking.

What is Malaria Exactly?
In short, malaria is a disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites that invade human red blood cells. The parasites are transmitted from person to person by blood-sucking Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasites multiply within the red blood cells and cause symptoms that include fever and headache and in severe cases malaria can progress to a coma and death.
 
How does this impact me?
As well as causing much human suffering, malaria is a massive socioeconomic burden for many of the poorest countries in the world.
 
What is being done to control malaria?
The Foundation for the NIH and the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom, through the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, awarded funds to establish a project called MalariaGEN. MalariaGEN is the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network, a data-sharing community working to develop new tools to control malaria by integrating public health research with genome science.
 
What is MalariaGEN?
Headed by Dominic Kwiatkowski from Oxford University and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, MalariaGEN is comprised of a community of researchers from more than 20 countries who are working together to share data to develop improved tools for controlling malaria. Collaboration and data-sharing between researchers is important because parasites and mosquitoes are continually acquiring genetic changes to overcome human efforts (such as anti-malarial drugs and insecticides).
 
The collaborative effort seeks to understand how Genetic variations in parasites, mosquitoes and humans affect malaria. The goals of MalariaGEN are to:

• Expedite the development of an effective vaccine
• Develop new approaches for monitoring anti-malarial drug resistance and preventing it spreading
• Support innovative strategies for vector (carrier) control

More on MalariaGEN efforts:
Bringing together representatives of the malaria research community, MalariaGEN met at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK this past June to discuss the value of genomic sequencing of malaria parasites and mosquitoes. The goal of the discussion was to understand the relationship of genetic diversity to relevant biological, clinical and disease control questions such as drug and insecticide resistance and disease distribution.  Outcomes from this meeting included discussion of a framework for conducting multi center studies of parasite and mosquito polymorphism (genetic diversity); a formalized agreement is underway. The next meeting will discuss human genetic diversity and the impacts on malaria.

2011 MalariaGEN Meeting in the United Kingdom
 
What you can do to help control malaria and other global health issues?
The FNIH programs are at work in dozens of countries around the world as well as across the United States focusing on critical public health issues. These programs aim to alleviate wide spread suffering and death from diseases such as malaria, enteric infections and HIV, as well as train researchers and medical personnel in the developing world. Learn about our global health programs here >>
 
Your support is needed to continue this research. Please click here to learn how you can contribute >>