mobile malaria project

A journey to document the current innovations and future challenges of malaria control in Africa. Winner of the 2018 RGS Land Rover Bursary

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The Mobile Malaria Project is trans-African journey with two aims:

To celebrate the diverse and innovative malaria research currently being undertaken in Africa. The burden of malaria has halved in the last 20 years and the global community is aiming for complete elimination in the next 20 years. We will visit a variety of different researchers and organisations and learn about what’s worked in the past, the innovative strategies that are currently being trialled and try to understand what needs to be done in the future if we are to achieve the ambitious aim of elimination by 2040.
To teach mobile genetic sequencing in low resource settings with local project co-leads. During our journey we will work with research groups in Zambia and Kenya to develop the practical and computational skills to use Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology. We will trial simple protocols to extract and sequence parasite and mosquito DNA and will work with local colleagues to trial these in the field.

From March to May 2019, our 7,500km journey involved:

Meeting partners in four sub-Saharan African countries with varying malaria prevalence to learn about the research currently being undertaken to help control and eliminate malaria.
Working with colleagues in Zambia and Kenya to understand how to use mobile genetic sequencing machines to sequence parasites and mosquitoes in remote field locations.
Using our Land Rover Discovery with advanced communication capabilities to document our experiences via articles and blog posts and our Labroving podcast.

Mobile Malaria Project route