This federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports a longitudinal cohort study to examine the impact of early childhood malaria prevention interventions on malaria risk in school-age children in Ghana. The study, titled "IMPACT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD MALARIA PREVENTION ON MALARIA RISK AT SCHOOL ENTRY (ERASE)", will evaluate the epidemiological and...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $153,912 to the University of Ghana Medical Centre to conduct research on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenomics of dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy in young people living with HIV in Ghana. The key objectives of this research project are to: 1) Determine rates of dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) provides $467,400.00 to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to develop precise field-friendly methods for quantifying antimalarial drugs in dried blood spot (DBS) samples. The project aims to employ volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) to collect DBS samples and use ultra-performance liquid...
This federal Project Grant award, with a total funding amount of $1,553,810, was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The grant aims to develop a genomic surveillance approach to identify mutations under selection in functional pathways associated with artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites in Africa. The key objectives are to: 1) identify parasite loci...
This Project Grant award of $1,373,790 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) supports research to optimize next-generation antimalarial drug candidates known as ELQs. The goal is to develop ELQ-596 and related compounds for once-monthly oral prophylaxis against malaria, which would simplify dosing, improve compliance, and reduce costs compared to current options. The research, conducted by a...
This Project Grant award for $174,544, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CFDA 47.070) program, supports the development of a novel, integrated geospatial framework that applies advanced machine learning techniques to map disease-transmission risk for mosquito-borne infectious diseases in Southern Africa. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: High-resolution satellite imagery processed...
This $1,480,500 federal Project Grant award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the Director under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) will fund research by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York to identify and characterize the roles of non-coding RNAs in regulating drug-induced quiescence in Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria. The project aims to uncover novel epigenetic and epitranscriptomic mechanisms that enable...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $702,204 Cooperative Agreement under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to conduct research on complex malaria in India. The key products and services to be delivered through this 5-year project include: Monitoring the changing epidemiology of malaria in Odisha, India through a 4-year community-based cohort study to...
This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the Global AIDS program (CFDA 93.067) provides $11,097,080 to Global Health Systems Solutions (GHSS) to build and improve integrated laboratory capacity and quality services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The key objectives are to: 1) scale up quality assurance and improvement for HIV rapid testing and TB sites; 2) expand quality testing for viral load, early infant diagnosis,...
This Project Grant award of $690,500 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports a study to investigate the mechanisms underlying the poor responsiveness to the booster dose of the RTS,S malaria vaccine in African children. The primary awardee, Trustees of Boston University, will lead a comprehensive immunological analysis in a cohort of 600 Malawian children to understand the factors...
GEO-ENABLED DETECT AND RESPOND SYSTEM FOR ANTIMALARIAL RESISTANCE IN GHANA: GDRS - GHANA - PROJECT SUMMARY ANTIMALARIAL DRUG RESISTANCE IS A CONTINUING CHALLENGE IN THE GLOBAL EFFORT TO CONTROL AND ELIMINATE MALARIA. WELL DESIGNED, RAPID AND HIGHLY GRANULAR ANTIMALARIAL SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED TO PROTECT THE EFFICACY OF REMAINING ANTIMALARIAL TREATMENTS AND INFORM DISCOVERY OF NEW, EFFECTIVE DRUGS AND VACCINES. MOLECULAR MARKERS ARE USEFUL TOOLS TO MONITOR ANTI-MALARIAL DRUG RESISTANCE AND, IF USED IN ROUTINE SURVEILLANCE, COULD HELP TO DETECT AND MONITOR THE EARLY EMERGENCE OF RESISTANCE BEFORE IT TRANSLATES TO TREATMENT FAILURES. THIS PROJECT WILL ADDRESS THE NEED FOR MORE POWERFUL MOLECULAR SURVEILLANCE THROUGH A STRATEGIC COLLABORATION BETWEEN TWO GEOGRAPHICALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY COMPLEMENTARY, AFRICA-BASED NETWORKS - THE DS-I AFRICA INFORM RESEARCH HUB AND THE WEST AFRICAN CENTER FOR CELL BIOLOGY FOR INFECTIOUS PATHOGENS (WACCBIP). AKROS AND THE INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN VIROLOGY NIGERIA, BOTH PART OF THE INFORM RESEARCH HUB, WILL COLLABORATE WITH WACCBIP TO STRENGTHEN GHANA'S MALARIA GENOMIC SURVEILLANCE NETWORK TO INCLUDE CAPTURE OF COMMUNITY-LEVEL, GEO ENABLED DRIED BLOOD SPOT (DBS) SAMPLES AND EXPAND THIS NETWORK TO INCLUDE ADDITIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC AND GENOMIC DATA STREAMS ACROSS GEOGRAPHIES IN AFRICA. THIS PARTNERSHIP WILL LEVERAGE WACCBIP'S EXISTING GENOMIC SURVEILLANCE 'HUB-AND-SPOKE' LAB NETWORK AND INTEGRATE THE NETWORK WITH THE WORK OF THE DS-I AFRICA INFORM RESEARCH HUB. THE DELIBERATE, STRATEGIC PLAN TO INTEGRATE WACCBIP WITH PARTNERS WITHIN DS-I AFRICA WILL EXPAND GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE OF GEOSPATIAL SURVEILLANCE THROUGH PIVOTING THE OPEN-SOURCE 'REVEAL' GEOSPATIAL PLATFORM ALREADY IN USE BY DS-I AFRICA. WITH THE USE OF REVEAL, THE CONSORTIUM WILL GEOENABLE WACCBIP'S EXISTING MALARIA GENOMIC SURVEILLANCE NETWORK AND EXPAND THE PLATFORM TO LINK DBS DATA COLLECTED AT THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL TO ADVANCED NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING (NGS) LABS. THROUGH THIS PROJECT, STAKEHOLDERS WILL BE EQUIPPED TO VISUALIZE AND MONITOR MOLECULAR MARKERS OF ANTIMALARIAL RESISTANCE CAPTURED FROM THE DBS SAMPLES, AND GEOSPATIALLY ALIGN THESE GENOMIC DATA TO OTHER DATA STREAMS INCLUDING EPIDEMIOLOGIC, PROGRAMMATIC, AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC DATA TO INFORM INTERVENTION RESPONSE. THE LINKING AND GEOENABLING OF THE EXISTING SURVEILLANCE NETWORK TO THE REVEAL PLATFORM WILL INCREASE GRANULAR GEOSPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ANTIMALARIAL RESISTANCE INSIGHTS TO GUIDE RESPONSIVE ACTION AND DRIVE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF ANTIMALARIAL RESISTANCE EMERGENCE AND SPREAD. WE ENVISION THIS PROJECT WILL PROVIDE A MODEL FOR A) GEOENABLED COMMUNITY-LEVEL GENOMIC SURVEILLANCE, B) BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MANIFESTATION OF ANTIMALARIAL RESISTANCE AT A GRANULAR LEVEL, AND C) TIMELY ACCESS TO CRITICAL EVIDENCE TO GUIDE NATIONAL DECISION-MAKING FOR MALARIA PROGRAM RESPONSE AND ADAPTATION.