May 20, 2020
Critical research into the optimal treatment and prevention of malaria will benefit from the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants, announced today.
ACREME Chief Investigator Prof Julie Simpson will receive $2,163,220 for her research “Optimising treatment and prevention strategies to accelerate malaria elimination”. Prof. Simpson’s work brings together data science approaches and mathematical modelling to develop new methods to assess antimalarial treatments and radical population interventions, as well as identifying markers of drug resistance, in order to accelerate malaria elimination efforts.
ACREME Fellow Dr Rob Commons was awarded $566,164 for his proposal “Advancing the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria through optimal antimalarial regimens”. Dr Commons research focuses on providing evidence for national malaria programs and clinicians in relation to complete or “radical” cure of vivax malaria, which affects forty percent of the global population.
Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Optimizing antimalarial treatment access and dosing regimens is a critical priority for reaching malaria elimination goals.