Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute

The use of bed nets and spraying indoor insecticides are key vector control measures in the fight against malaria - but they won't last forever. Transcript The use of bed nets and spraying indoor insecticides are key vector control measures in the fight against malaria. Many malaria-endemic countries, like Uganda, have government schemes to recurringly roll out these interventions. The use of thos...

When you give a vaccine, you generate a team of antibodies. Some will be effective, others not so much. Suppose you took the very best player and transformed your immune system into a team of all-stars? Would you increase your chances of winning the game? With Robert Seder, Principal Investigator at NIAID, NIH.

Monoclonal antibodies are a relatively new tool in the fight against malaria, hoped to offer prolonged protection against disease. We take a look at the results of a new clinical trial investigating L9LS, a next-generation antibody for malaria. Transcript Monoclonal antibodies are a relatively new tool in the fight against malaria. Scientists recently put a next-generation antibody called L9LS to...

James Watson is a statistician working to improve the diagnosis and treatment of severe malaria. He's found that many children in African settings are probably getting misdiagnosed.

As many as one-third of children may be getting misdiagnosed with severe malaria when in fact their symptoms are being caused by something else. Transcript With coma and severe anaemia, the symptoms of severe malaria can be punishing. But how do you ensure that those symptoms are because of malaria, and not something else?  As many as one-third of children diagnosed with severe malaria in high-tra...

Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena and Joel Vega-Rodriguez unlock part of the mystery of how the malaria parasite moves in the mosquito. We explore the long history of this story - and it involves glow-in-the-dark mosquitoes.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and NIH genetically engineered malaria-carrying mosquitoes to block malaria infection in the human skin. Transcript Without mosquitoes, malaria can't be transmitted. To establish infection, the malaria parasite must move in the human skin to find a blood vessel. It's able to move by activating a human protein called plasminogen which is converted into a potent enzyme c...

The malaria parasite up close, brought to life by cell biology and physics. Freddy Frischknecht and Ulrich Schwarz describe the vortices-like movement of sporozoites and the benefits of interdisciplinary research.

Researchers look under the microscope to better understand how sporozoites move in the skin. Transcript The malaria parasite changes shape throughout its lifecycle, and it's the sporozoite - a slender, crescent-like form of the parasite - which is injected into the human by mosquitoes. Accumulating in the mosquito in the salivary glands, sporozoites are injected individually into the skin, through...

Matt Ippolito is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, using evidence on the ground to answer important research questions. He reveals how science is an evolving process with different stakeholders - and one where not everything is as it might first appear.

Patients with low platelet count might benefit most from whole blood transfusion for severe malaria anaemia; should be prioritised in clinical management of the disease. Transcript The clinical presentations of malaria can be severe, particularly severe malaria anaemia: a condition of the blood which reduces the amount of hemoglobin in the body or oxygen delivered to the vital organs. Whole blood...

Janet Hemingway is the President of the Royal Society of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, bringing together stakeholders to overcome insecticide resistance. She doesn't shy away from big logistical challenges and wants the world to know that insecticide resistance is a threat.

PBO nets prove 25% more effective than pyrethroid-only nets in national trials in Uganda. Transcript Mosquito nets imbued with insecticide are key to controlling malaria. So much so, that the mass distribution of bed nets with pyrethroids has led to a dramatic fall in malaria transmission.  But this widespread use has also led to widespread resistance. Nets with PBO, piperonyl butoxide, might be t...

Abdoulaye Diabate is leading the research on genetic technologies for malaria control in Burkina Faso, the only country in Africa to be working with genetically modified mosquitoes. He hopes to bring gene drive, an innovative genetic tool which could help reduce malaria transmission, to Africa in the future.

Target Malaria report on the first-ever release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Africa. Transcript Genetically engineered so they can't transmit malaria, gene drive mosquitoes could be game-changing. But we first need to understand how genetically modified mosquitoes reared in a lab behave in the wild. And in 2019, Target Malaria released on a small scale, and for the first time in Africa, g...

Angela Minassian reflects on what the malaria community can learn from the 'supercharged' COVID vaccine effort. Angela Minassian, MD, is the Chief Investigator and clinical lead on the blood-stage and transmission blocking malaria vaccine programs at the University of Oxford.

A new blood-stage malaria infection model helps solve a problem hindering research. Transcript The world urgently needs new drugs and vaccines to eradicate malaria. Whilst there's good headway against  P. falciparum  - the deadliest form of the parasite –research into  P. vivax  - the second deadliest – lags behind. Why? Researchers lack stable cultures of the parasite needed to infect people to t...

George Dimopoulos tells his story of how he evolved into a Mosquito Explorer . Listen in to learn how one scientist navigated his scientific journey.

The 'population replacement' strategy for mosquitoes to disrupt malaria transmission. Transcript Genetic tools to control the malaria mosquito are becoming increasingly attractive, particularly transgenesis: the process of introducing genes into the mosquito to stop it from transmitting malaria. Mosquito transgenesis can either suppress a mosquito population entirely or replace it with a strain th...

Research on the Wolbachia bacteria is applied to the malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquito, with exciting implications for vector control. Transcript New tools are needed to control the  Anopheles  mosquito, the vector of malaria. Bacteria called  Wolbachia  might be the answer. Although  Aedes  mosquitoes do not naturally carry  Wolbachia , when the bacteria were introduced from other sources,...

Malaria cases rose in 2020, as did death from the disease--by 12%. What caused this? Transcript This week, the WHO published its annual World Malaria Report, and the headline figures are stark. There were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria in 2020, up 14 million from the year before. 627,000 of these cases resulted in death, up 12% from the year before. This uptick in death is attributed la...

Single-genome sequencing reveals evolution of P vivax malaria parasites within the human host and identifies mutations that could confer drug resistance and escape from natural or vaccine immune responses. Transcript The fight against malaria is often described as a game of catch up, as the malaria parasite adapts and evolves to resist drug treatment and, in some cases, even diagnosis. Understandi...

Every year, the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute hosts its Future of Malaria Research Symposium. It highlights the work of younger scientists, giving them the chance to 'run the show'. This podcast is a conversation between this year's keynote speaker, Etienne Bilgo, and director of the Malaria Research Institute, Peter Agre. Listen to hear their reflections on where we are in the fight ag...

Large cage experiments that emulate the real-world environment demonstrate the viability of gene drive technology. Transcript Gene drives have the potential to reduce malaria transmission by controlling mosquito reproduction. By targeting the  doublesex  gene of  Anopheles  mosquitoes, they can render female mosquitoes infertile and crash the entire population over time. But, for the most part, ge...

New research into the role and function of the apicoplast, a plant-like structure within the malaria parasite, has changed scientists' perceptions of how the parasite survives. Transcript The apicoplast, a plant-like structure within  Plasmodium falciparum  malaria parasites, has long been thought to have one essential function in blood-stage parasites: to produce isoprenoids, chemical building bl...