MalariaGEN Software Development Support

The purpose of this project is to support the establishment of a working system for genomic surveillance of Plasmodium parasites and Anopheles mosquitoes that will overcome critical knowledge gaps and inform key decisions in malaria control. The primary outcome of the project is that malaria control programs and policymakers use genetic data (integrated with epidemiological data) to make more informed decisions about how to deploy next-generation LLINs, to coordinate IRS programs rotating multiple insecticides, to maintain effective anti-malarial drug treatments in Southeast Asia, and to target interventions for maximum impact in both high- and low-transmission settings.

To deliver the proposed vision and outcomes, this project has four key criteria for success:

• Wider Community Development – successfully revitalise and grow the existing MalariaGEN partner network, widening the number and range of stakeholders who are active members of this community by providing samples, embracing open access to their data and professional insight, which will accelerate the overall impact of this project. 
• Professional Product Development – our work to date has prototyped all of the necessary tools to develop an initial set of pipelines and analysis tools that create both curated analysis-ready genetic data and curated analysis ready epidemiology data.  
• Efficient Service Delivery – producing high-quality data products, at scale, in a timely manner, and at low cost, whilst accurately collecting and curating essential metadata.
• Effective Partner Support for Translation – Understanding how NMCPs can use information derived from genomes as part of their decision-making processes by defining further use cases,  building confidence to trust this data, and the capacity to use it, and promoting a sense of ownership (e.g. through the eventual incorporation of in-country sequencing) will be essential to the long-term take-up of surveillance.

The project has progressed to a new phase: link.

Project details

Capacity Building
Enabling Technologies & Assays
Health Workforce
Information Systems
Surveillance

Nov 2019 — Jan 2024

$13.85M

United Kingdom

Malaria Molecular Surveillance (MMS)