Malaria Drug Resistance and Chemotherapy

Laboratory Head  

Dr Michelle Gatton

Summary

This laboratory studies the mechanisms and factors influencing the development, survival and spread of drug resistance in malaria parasites, and investigates ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of malaria. (In collaboration with the Australian Army Malaria Institute at Enoggera – split laboratory.)

Conditions researched

• Malaria

Current research

• Parasite resistance to artemisinin drugs
• Accuracy of malaria rapid diagnostic tests
• Mechanisms of resistance to standard and newly developed antimalarial drugs
• Assessing the impact of malaria interventions and control strategies
• Plasmodium vivax genetics influencing relapse patterns

Staff

Laboratory Head: Dr Michelle Gatton

Deputy Laboratory Head: Dr Qin Cheng

Research Officer: Dr Franka Teuscher, Dr Douglas Kerlin

Research Assistants: Ms Karryn Gresty, Ms Anita Pelecanos, Ms Lisa Bain

Visiting Scientists: Dr Marina Chavchich, Dr Geoff Birrell, Professor Dennis Shanks, Ms Veronica Zhang    

Funding

We acknowledge the support of the following funding agencies:

• National Institutes of Health, USA
• AusAid through WHO/WPRO
• Aus Aid through Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre (PAcMISC), University of Queensland
• Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)
• NHMRC
• Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) Program, US Department of Homeland Security and the Fogarty International Centre
• Global Emerging Infectious Diseases (GIIS), US Department of Defense

Collaborators

National

Drs James McCarthy, Don Gardiner, Katharine Trenholme, Kathy Andrews, Peter Ryan and Professor Brian Kay at QIMR.

Drs Ric Price and Nick Anstey, Tropical Medicine and International Health Unit, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin

Dr Bob Cooper, Dr Mike Edstein, and Professor Dennis Shanks, Australian Army Malaria Institute

Pacific Malaria Initiative Supporting Centre (PacMISC), University of Queensland

International

Professors Dennis Kyle and John Adams, Department of Global Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.

Drs Mike O'Neil, Chris Ockenhouse, Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, USA. 

Dr Norm Waters, West Point Military Academy, New York, USA. 

Drs David Bell, Jane Cunningham, WHO/GMP and WHO/TDR and Dr Mark Perkins: The Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests Quality Assurance program and network (includes approximately 15 laboratories worldwide).  

Professor Nicholas J White, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr Heidi Hopkins, FIND (Uganda Office).

Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN)

WHO/TDR