Title: Novel Tools to Diagnose, Understand, and Combat Malaria
Bio: Research in our lab uses molecular tools to better understand the epidemiology of malaria and other infectious diseases. We constantly develop novel laboratory methods to diagnose, quantify and genotype parasites and their transmission stages, and apply them to large population-based surveys. We aim to contribute to new strategies for the control and eventual elimination of infectious diseases.
A large proportion of all malaria infections do not result in febrile illness and thus remain untreated. Clinical diagnosis in endemic countries often lacks sensitivity, adding to the number of untreated infections. Using sensitive molecular methods, we aim to understand the true extent of infections. In Bangladesh, we have shown that archived specimens from the national malaria control program can be used to map the risk of future outbreaks
