East Africa 2008
Starting in Kilifi, Kenya, at the site of the Oxford Tropical Network’s malaria research station there, this expedition will travel through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi, researching social, economic and molecular aspects of Malaria.
In recent years, Malaria has experienced a resurgence in Africa, fuelled by strains resistant to front-line antimalarial drugs. Currently, over one million people die each year from malarial infections. As an interdisciplinary team, we will spend nine weeks divided between multiple sites in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. The research of expedition members breaks down into roughly two categories: (1) Laboratory-based studies on the molecular biology of the parasite, and (2) participatory research aimed at collecting data on drug pricing and availability.
We seek to contribute original research both to parasite biology as well as the social and economic factors affecting spread of malaria and drug resistance by working in partnership with our peers and supervisors in East Africa. In lab-based studies we plan to collect and process a variety of molecular products, including DNA, RNA and proteins from clinically interesting parasite isolates at several field sites. These will then be further studied for markers of parasite physiological state, antigenic characteristics, and interesting phenotypes such as drug resistance. In participatory studies, we seek to understand social and economic factors contributing to patterns of drug use and drug pricing, and how these may relate to the development of drug-resistance strains. Finally, we intend to collect samples of available chemotherapeutics and to perform chemical analysis to evaluate their purity and composition.
