Malaria Molecular Surveillance (MMS)

This is an active Deep Dive (under construction) and we welcome your contributions! If you are currently involved in or planning a malaria molecular surveillance project, please contact MESA (mesa@isglobal.org) or add your project to the MESA Track database.

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Malaria Molecular Surveillance (MMS) is the use of molecular biology approaches – from serology to genotyping to whole genome sequencing – to study malaria parasites and/or vector populations in order to derive epidemiologically actionable information.

MMS has a great potential to improve malaria surveillance efforts. However, there is a considerable gap in transforming this potential and aligning MMS efforts to public health needs to enable country-led analysis and decision-making. 

This Deep Dive, categorized by use cases, has an overarching aim to map out who is doing what, where and how to facilitate coordination. Such coordination is essential to facilitate knowledge sharing and the adoption of interoperability standards. In short, to bridge the gap between MMS efforts and its utilization in informing policy and programmatic decision-making, MESA is building a knowledge base for a ‘Community of Practice’ to address challenges encountered with implementing MMS and the integration of molecular and genomic data. Some of the challenges include:

1. Socialization of laboratory methods and SOPs
2. Standardization of molecular data and translation
3. Challenges surrounding procurement of equipment, supplies and reagents in malaria-endemic regions
4. Training & mentoring to boost a sustainable cadre of bioinformaticians and experts in genomics
5. Establishing a surveillance platform, assessing the quality of sequence data, data curation
6. Standards for data collection, integration and translation to actionable knowledge and application

In addition, MESA is curating a collection of useful resources to be published shortly in the MESA Resource Hub. This will include links to regional hubs, initiatives and networks; training materials; dashboards, databases and bioinformatic tools & resources; data sharing and archiving platforms; protocols; selected peer reviewed publications; WHO guidance documents among others.

We welcome your feedback, inputs and collaboration! Reach out to us at mesa@isglobal.org.