A new international weapon in the fight against malaria was announced on the 4th February 2008 at a malaria conference in Lorne, Victoria. One of the largest global networks of scientists ever convened to fight malaria will be created when the Australian ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union Network of Excellence on the Biology and Pathology of Malaria (FP6’s BioMalPar).
The global network will bring together some of the world’s best malaria scientists to develop treatments and a cure for a disease that kills more than one million people every year, mainly infants, young children and pregnant women.
According to Professor Nick Smith, Convenor of the Network and chief investigator at Sydney’s UTS Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases, the alliance will promote collaboration between individual scientists and research groups. “It will also result in improved coordination of relevant research programs undertaken by the European Union and the Australian Governments in an effort to defeat malaria,” he said.
According to Professor Smith, Australia has a strong international reputation in research into malaria, a disease that infects one in ten of the world’s population. “In addition, we will be bringing our scientists into close contact and collaboration with malaria scientists from more than ten countries in the EU – which will make a very powerful nexus of malaria researchers,” he said.
Ninety per cent of all malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, although, if caught early, the mosquito-borne disease is curable.
There are about a dozen serious candidates for malaria vaccines currently under development.
Source: EC/NHMRC Press release
The BioMalPar project
The joint scientific programme of this NoE will comprise complementary clusters of fundamental studies in biology and pathology that will underpin novel strategies to control malaria:
- Development and Gene Regulation
- Functional Cell Biology and Metabolism
- Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Pathogenesis of Malaria
- Immune Response and Defence Mechanisms in the Host and the Vector
Joint activities will focus on developing methodologies or resources that overcome current roadblocks in studies of molecular and cellular processes of malaria biology and pathology, and programmes investigating complementary aspects of central questions identified in each of the four clusters. The Network will federate European research institutes of established international reputation in the field of malaria biology and their affiliated research groups in malaria-endemic areas. Through BioMalPar’s programme of jointly executed research, 44 malaria groups will support the network’s goals to strengthen existing excellence and create a durable structuring of basic malaria research in Europe.
The integration will provide international leadership, disseminate expertise and resources, provide training and mobility of scientists at all levels, and foster long-term collaborations that will strengthen European Malaria research. A strong central management structure will be built around the core group of 11 institutions/consortia from six European countries and will be complemented by partnerships and associations with other EU member state laboratories, African partners from malaria-endemic regions (Mali, Sudan and Uganda) and SMEs.
Source: European Commission
