Predictive Model

Teun Bousema of Radboud University in the Netherlands proposed that geographic "hotspots" of malaria disease drive local transmission, and therefore that interventions would most efficiently be deployed if they targeted these hotspots. This project’s Phase I research demonstrated that hotspots of malaria transmission are present at all levels of endemicity and can be sensitively detected by serological markers of malaria exposure.

Sudeshna Adak from OmiX Research and Diagnostics Laboratories Pvt Ltd. In India will develop a point-of-care AMR test and polymer card combined with a phone based surveillance system to detect and track AMR molecular signatures in primary care settings or in settings where access to AMR testing is currently unavailable. They will demonstrate a proof-of-concept for detection of AMR in urinary tract infections (UTI), establish and validate a 5-gene AMR signature assay in the proposed AMR test.

The study is aimed at developing a novel, low-cost test for pre-term birth (PTB). The proposal is intended to test and validate the low-cost salivary progesterone as a point-of-care (POC) test for detecting risk of PTBs in rural community settings of India. Offering non-invasive sampling of biological fluid that is easy to collect, the study allows validation of saliva from a large cohort of pregnant women residing in low-resource community settings.

The study aims to assess the effect of depression on pregnancy and develop biomarkers for adverse pregnancy outcomes. It plans to analyze stress outcomes on pregnancy, fetal growth and birth weight. The overall aim of the study is to determine stress biomarkers for early detection of mothers at risk of preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and to develop interventions to reduce stress and reduce adverse birth outcomes.

The project is aimed at building better bio-banks for long-term storage of bio-specimens. It has been planned to enroll a cohort of pregnant women, who are less than 20 weeks of gestation and follow them until delivery to study their vulnerability to environmental, clinical and biological factors. The study will contribute to our understanding of the association of these various factors with preterm birth (PTB).

The proposal attempts to address the lack of a simple, low-cost, prospective biomarker for future short stature or stunting. It aims to validate the use of absolute neutrophil count as a predictor/biomarker for stunting in infants. It has been hypothesized that infants in settings with poor sanitation conditions and associated abnormal inflammation of the gut from infections subsequently have poor absorptions of nutrients and loss of supplements which eventually leads to stunting.

Teun Bousema of Radboud University in the Netherlands proposed that geographic "hotspots" of malaria disease drive local transmission, and therefore that interventions would most efficiently be deployed if they targeted these hotspots. This project's Phase I research demonstrated that hotspots of malaria transmission are present at all levels of endemicity and can be sensitively detected by serological markers of malaria exposure.

Lena Hulden of the University of Helsinki in Finland will test the hypothesis that saliva from newly emerging mosquitoes activates dormant P. vivax parasites in the liver. By robust statistical analysis of the timing of P. vivax outbreaks, as well as molecular analysis of mosquito saliva, Hulden hopes to eventually identify the trigger for these relapses in hopes of controlling outbreaks.

Bryan Greenhouse of the University of California, San Francisco, will design a series of microsatellites, short DNA repeats which have variable lengths in different parasites, to track individual parasites in two regions close to malaria elimination. If successful, this approach will provide insight into parasite transmission networks and help to guide future malaria eradication efforts.

Ichiro Matsumura of Emory University in the U.S. proposes to use synthetic DNA techniques to transform Wolbachia, a bacterial parasite that infects most insect species, in an effort to engineer mosquitoes to be immune to malaria parasites.