Target Malaria Newsletter

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2024!

This edition will feature?events and information from the first quarter of the year.

On Friday the 15th of March, Target Malaria Burkina Faso team was honoured to have a ministerial visit from Professor Adjima Thiombiano, Minister of Research at the Institute of Research for Health Sciences (Institut de recherche en sciences de la santé) in Bobo-Dioulasso. Professor Thombiano has served as the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation for the past year, and with his academic background in ecology, the team was able to have some provoking discussions about the entomological research that we do in the context of Target Malaria. The Minister complimented the project and the team on the work done so far and provided his full support.?Read the blog here .

Target Malaria Ghana and the global communications team developed two new videos in English and Twi, titled "Our Work In Ghana"?here on YouTube .??

Hwihw? adwuma a w?y? no ho ns?m pii w? video a ?w? ase??ha no:?Twi version .

The Uganda team met with the consultative group representing communities around the Arthropod Containment Level 2 insectary at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.?This was the culmination of continuous engagement by the Ugandan Stakeholder Engagement team with stakeholders from the administrative pyramid as well as traditional, religious, informal and vulnerable groups. Representatives from local councils, youth, women, disability, parishes and other socially influential community members were part of the consultation process.

In February, the Crisanti Lab had a stand at Imperial Lates Romance and Reproduction,?an event held at Imperial College London. Imperial Lates are fun and social post-work events where the public can interact with the latest scientific developments at Imperial College London, centred around a new theme for each evening.?

The Lab held a stand named “Mozzie mating” featuring various communication tools, such as our card game “Mozzie Drive”, the “Swarm” sonification, live mosquitoes and larvae allowing visitors to come face-to-face with mosquitoes and find out from our scientists how their mating behaviour can be harnessed to eradicate disease. ?Read the blog here .?

Dr. Federica Bernardini joined Malaria No More UK to discuss life-changing malaria?research with parliamentary candidates Joseph Powell, Ben Coleman and William Hungbo.

Media

Krystal Birungi of Target Malaria Uganda featured in article by Al Jazeera English titled "Could new vaccines end malaria in Africa?". Read the full article here.

Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté of Target Malaria Burkina Faso was featured by CNN in an article titled "African scientist could wipe out malaria by editing mosquito DNA". Read the full article here.?

Professor Diabaté was named one of the Personalities of the Year by BF1 TELEVISION for receiving the prestigious Falling Walls Foundation Science & Innovation Prize 2023. Watch here .

Dr. Jonathan Kayondo of Target Malaria Uganda?featured on UBCTV Uganda's U Health Chat hosted by Sophia Matovu to discuss new innovations for malaria vector control. Watch the full clip here .

Events

Professor Diabaté will be speaking at TED 2024 in Vancouver, Canada 15th - 19th April! Check out the speaker line up so far . For more information .

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is back and will be?taking place across the weekend of the 15th?and 16th?of?June! Target Malaria will be present and located in the NextGen Zone at the Science Museum. Please come meet us at our stand if you are in the UK!?

Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM Society) 8th Pan-African Malaria Conference is from April 21st to 27th 2024 at the Kigali Convention Centre. For more information, please visit here .

World Malaria Day is April 25th!?The theme this year is "Gender, Equity and Human Rights". Our?digital campaign will focus on profiling Target Malaria stakeholders. We will also launch our new artwork: Target Malaria's original wax pattern.

Resources

Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté's Wikipedia profile is now live.?Please find it here .

The Target Malaria brochure is now available in Italian! Read it here / Per saperne di più .

New Publications

Mwima R, Hui TJ, Nanteza A, Burt A, Kayondo JK. Potential persistence mechanisms of the major Anopheles gambiae species?complex malaria vectors in sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review. Malar J. 2023 Nov 7;22(1):336. doi: 10.1186/s12936-023-04775-0 ?

Dicko B, Kodio S, Samoura H, Traoré F, Sykes N, Drabo M, Thizy D, Coche I, Robinson B, Sanogo K, Yagouré B, Diop S, Coulibaly MB. Stakeholder engagement in the development of genetically modified mosquitoes for malaria control in West Africa: lessons learned from 10 years of Target Malaria's work in Mali. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2024 Jan 5;11:1286694. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1286694 .?

Abkallo, H.M., Arbuthnot, P., Auer, T.O. et al. Making genome editing a success story in Africa. Nat Biotechnol. 2024 Mar 19. doi: 10.1038/s41587-024-02187-2 .

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