Plasmodium falciparum News and Research

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Study reveals essential malaria parasite genes

Researchers have exploited a quirk in the genetic make-up of the deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to create 38,000 mutant strains and then determine which of the organism's genes are essential to its growth and survival.

3 May 2018

New $3.2 million grant funds research to advance promising malaria vaccine

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund has awarded the University of Florida and partners in the United States and Japan $3.2 million to advance a promising vaccine to prevent transmission of malaria.

29 Mar 2018

Researchers discover potential new antimalarial treatment targets

Researchers have discovered crucial new processes that allow malaria parasites to escape red blood cells and infect other cells, offering potential new treatment targets.

20 Feb 2018

SUTD-NCL team completes phenotypic screening of MMV Malaria Box against pathogenic parasites

A Singapore-India collaborative research project between the Singapore University of Technology & Design and CSIR-National Chemical Laboratories completed phenotypic screening of a large collection of potent chemical inhibitors (known as MMV Malaria Box), against pathogenic parasites Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum, causative agents of human toxoplasmosis and malaria.

27 Jan 2018

Researchers test new anti-malaria medication

An international research team has conducted successful phase II clinical tests of a new anti-malaria medication. The treatment led to a cure in 83 cases.

19 Jan 2018

Researchers identify potential alternatives to tackle drug resistant malaria parasites

A new analysis of all relevant previously published clinical data shows how parasites causing malaria become resistant to a commonly used treatment for malaria in travellers.

11 Dec 2017

Malaria parasite employs active strategy to deceive the immune system

Global efforts to eradicate malaria are crucially dependent on scientists' ability to outsmart the malaria parasite. And Plasmodium falciparum is notoriously clever: It is quick to develop resistance against medications and has such a complex life cycle that blocking it effectively with a vaccine has thus far proved elusive.

7 Dec 2017

Research could contribute to development of therapeutic drug and vaccine against malaria

Malaria is one of three major infectious diseases affecting approximately 300 million people every year, accounting for about 500,000 deaths, but effective vaccine development has not been successful.

4 Dec 2017

Penn researchers find evidence of new malaria species in wild bonobos

Malaria parasites, although widespread among wild chimpanzees and gorillas, have not been detected in bonobos, a chimp cousin. Reasoning that previous studies may have missed infected bonobo populations, a team led by Beatrice Hahn, MD, a professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a more extensive survey, increasing both the number and places they sampled wild bonobo populations.

21 Nov 2017

Malaria parasites’ decision making influenced by fatty molecule in human blood

Depletion of a fatty molecule in human blood propels malaria parasites to stop replicating and causing illness in people and instead to jump ship to mosquitoes to continue the transmission cycle, according to a new study by an international research team.

9 Nov 2017

Malaria detection using breath analyzers

Researchers are on the verge of developing a new breath test that could detect malaria. The team from Washington University in St. Louis found that malaria in blood leaves a typical “breathprint” that is unique and can be detected using a breath analyzer test.

6 Nov 2017

GHIT Fund announces US$16.7 million to support development of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a unique Japanese public-private partnership formed to battle infectious diseases around the globe, today announced US$16.7 million to support development of new compounds for fighting malaria and tuberculosis, a leishmaniasis vaccine and drug, and a treatment for a long-ignored flesh-eating infection.

31 Oct 2017

“Super malaria” resistant to standard medications in South East Asia

The spread of a single multidrug resistant malaria parasite strain in Vietnam is cause for alarm say researchers.

25 Sep 2017

Researchers receive $11.5 million program project grant to eliminate drug resistant malaria

Texas Biomedical Research Institute researchers, Dr. Tim Anderson and Dr. Ian Cheeseman, have partnered with researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle to pursue studies in drug resistant malaria.

20 Sep 2017

Carbohydrates on surface of malaria parasites could be key to effective vaccine

An international research team has shown for the first time that carbohydrates on the surface of malaria parasites play a critical role in malaria's ability to infect mosquito and human hosts.

18 Sep 2017

Tulane University researchers develop new drug effective against malaria

Tulane University researchers have developed a new drug that is effective against non-severe cases of malaria, according to results from an FDA-supervised clinical trial published in the latest issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

13 Sep 2017

Novel compounds found to be highly effective in preventing transmission of malaria parasites

Significant headway has been made in controlling malaria. However, two vexing problems remain: currently available treatments are unable to block transmission of the parasite that causes the disease, and the parasite often becomes resistant to drugs.

7 Sep 2017

Radboudumc, iMM Lisboa, PATH team up to test new malaria vaccine concept

The Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, the Instituto de Medicina Molecular Lisboa in Portugal, and PATH in Seattle, Washington announced today that they will collaborate to test a new approach to malaria vaccine development in humans for the first time.

31 May 2017

Complex malaria vaccine protects monkeys against virulent parasite strains

Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, modified an experimental malaria vaccine and showed that it completely protected four of eight monkeys that received it against challenge with the virulent Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite.

22 May 2017

Alere introduces first-ever highly sensitive malaria test for asymptomatic infections

Alere Inc., a global leader in rapid diagnostics, today announced the launch of its Alere™ Malaria Ag P.f, a major technological breakthrough in high-sensitivity rapid testing versus currently available malaria RDTs.

27 Apr 2017