Programs

The Harvard Malaria initiative brings together faculty from the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with leading universities in malaria endemic countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Combating the spread of malaria is increasingly urgent, for if new treatments are not developed, malaria cases could double in the next ten years.  While drug companies have moved away from malaria drug and vaccine development, teams at universities and international non-government organizations have plugged away at the challenge of understanding what makes malaria so difficult to combat.  In October 2002, scientists worldwide celebrated the complete genomic sequencing of both P. falciparum and its favored mosquito host, Anopheles gambiae.  These genomic sequences are the codes that tell the parasite and mosquito how to develop through their life stages and how to respond to threats to their survival. The challenge now is to decode the 14,000 individual genes in these organisms so we can target their weak spots.

Partner Institutions

A key element of the Harvard Malaria Initiative (HMI) is the establishment of links with leading universities and research institutions in disease endemic countries.  These links are in the form of exchange programs both for senior investigators and for trainees.  There is a strong need in disease endemic countries to establish a critical mass of investigators working on important infectious diseases, yet both resource and facility limitations have prevented this from occurring on a adequate scale to fully address these important health problems.  Often these diseases represent a major health threat in the local environment and a global scale in the developing world, but are minor diseases in the United States and Western Europe.  The result, with some exceptions, over the past two decades has been a decrease in the number of individuals trained to work in this critical areas, both in the US and in disease endemic countries and it is the goal of this program to reverse that trend.  In the long term, many diseases which are primarily diseases of the developing world will need to be addressed by those nations and one of the goals of HMI is to lay the intellectual infrastructure for science based disease control programs.

Cheikh Anta Diop Univeristy, Dakar, Senegal

The Harvard-Senegal malaria project is conducted in the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry in the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal.  This faculty is one the largest medical schools in West Africa and has 1200 students and 200 faculty members.  The mission of the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry is to train a cadre of health professionals capable of treating diseases of the people of Senegal.  The university has a strong research tradition with an emphasis on infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis.  The project is conducted in two affiliated hospitals: Hopital Aristide Le Dantec (HALD) and National Reference Hospital (Fann Hospital). 

The malaria research laboratory, under the direction of Professor Souleymane Mboup, is situated in the proximity of the bacteriology-virology laboratory that is located at HALD in Dakar.  Through collaborations with US and French partnerships, Professor Mboup has developed a significant research program that relies heavily on training of young Senegalese investigators in infectious disease research.  Over the years, this laboratory has evolved into one of the most sophisticated HIV/STD laboratories in Africa with serology; tissue culture; PCR and FACS based technologies that are amenable to a host of infectious disease agents including malaria. 

The Malaria Research Laboratories, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

University of Malawi, College of Medicine

Malaria Research Unit, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

The Malaria Research Unit is located in the Medical Campus of the University of Colombo, known as the Faculty of Medicine, and is a sub-department within the Department of Parasitology. The Malaria Research Unit consists of several laboratories, which are each specialized for molecular analyses, immunologic analyses, or entomologic analyses. There is a BL3 level containment facility in the department. The MRU is located next to the National Hospital, and as such, the MRU has access to clinical samples from this hospital. All samples are obtained with informed consent and all protocols are reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Medicine. The MRU has also set up a field research station in the endemic area of Kataragama, Sri Lanka. Animal facilities are available in the adjacent building and are maintained by the Faculty of Medicine. The Malaria Research Unit (MRU) maintains monkeys infected with Plasmodium species at this facility. The MRU also maintains an insectory, which breeds mosquitoes infected with the Plasmodium parasite