Our projects mainly involve aspects of malaria but also other areas of neglected tropical diseases and global health.
Antimalarial Drug Resistance in the DRUGS Team
The research in the DRUGS Team explores various, mainly molecular aspects of pathogens causing vector-borne infectious diseases, with a focus on malaria. The research include efficacy of antimalarial drugs, testing of various novel strategies for providing prevention for the most vulnerable and molecular surveillance of antimalarial drug resistance. A new focus is on climate change and its effects on emergence and distribution of vector-borne diseases.
The DRUGS Team is involved in research projects on diagnostics, epidemiology, transmission, management and control of malaria and other vector-borne diseases including neglected tropical diseases. Research projects are anchored in various international networks often involving a strong research capacity building component and mainly performed in sub-Saharan Africa and funded by national as well as international funding sources.
The DRUGS Team's research have a strong focus on molecular aspects of VBDs, mainly malaria and as this have resulted in the development of tools to be used for:
- Molecular markers of antimalarial drug resistance (single nucleotide polymorphism-based analyses) as well as molecular evolution studies of malaria: High-throughput targeted Next Generation Sequencing using the illumina platform and simple Sanger sequencing
- Molecular diagnostics of VBDs, mainly malaria using a range of PCR-based technologies; e.g. real-time quantitative PCR, nested PCR etc.
- Serological markers of relevance for measuring acquired immunity, impact of interventions, as well as markers to be used as proxies of exposure to mosquito bites; both for malaria vectors (Anopheles) and arboviral (dengue and zika etc.) vectors (Aedes)
International collaborators
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK
- University of Göteborg, Sweden
- National Institute for Medical Research, Tanga, Tanzania
- Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Collage, Moshi, Tanzania
- University of Dar es Salaam, College of Information and Communication Technologies
- State University of Zanzibar
- Université Cheikh Anta DIOP, Dakar, Senegal
- Institute for Disease Modelling
- Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Nanoro, Burkina Faso
- Malaria Research and Training Center, University of Bamako, Mali (NIH funded)
Danish collaborators:
We are a diverse group of lab technicians, medical doctors, biologists, and biochemists at master, PhD, post doc, assisting professor and professor level with occasional guests from collaborating groups.
If you are interested in joining the DRUGS Team, please contact Michael Alifrangis