The Mobile Malaria Project is a journey with two main aims. The first is to document and communicate the diverse and innovative malaria research currently being performed across sub-Saharan Africa. We will achieve this by driving a unique transect coast to coast across Africa, from Namibia to Kenya, interviewing researchers and recording and documenting our experiences as we travel. It will be a unique record of the state of malaria research in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019.
Secondly, we will work with two specific groups, in Zambia and Kenya, to explore mobile genetic sequencing of malaria parasites and mosquitoes. Our main ambition is to teach these groups the basics of nanopore sequencing, from both a practical and computational point of view. Working together, we’ll learn the potential of these machines to be used in the future.
The Mobile Malaria Project is a collaboration between British and African scientists and a major ambition for the expedition is to raise awareness for the need for scientific training and infrastructure investment in Africa so that future African scientists can perform similar analyses to those undertaken during the expedition.