Target Malaria Newsletter

In Memoriam: Dr. Mamadou B. Coulibaly

Target Malaria has lost a cherished friend and colleague. On the 9th of October 2023, Dr. Mamadou B. Coulibaly passed away suddenly.?

Mamadou was the Principal Investigator of Target Malaria Mali (2012-2022). He was a leader in the fight against malaria in Mali and Africa, and mentored a new generation of researchers.

Mamadou leaves a remarkable legacy and will be sorely missed.?The entire Target Malaria team offers their sincere condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and partners.

Read more on our website.

Media

Target Malaria was featured in a 纽约时报 article by Stephanie Nolen "The Gamble: Can Genetically Modified Mosquitoes End Disease?". Quotes from Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté were included in the piece. Read the full article here.

Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté was recognised as the Falling Walls Winner in Science & Innovation Management 2023 .?This news has been promoted across Burkinabe and pan-African media, including in?BF1 ,?L'Observateur Paalga ,?The Guardian Nigeria , African Shapers , Le Faso , Minute.bf , Africa.com .

Dr. Fred Aboagye-Antwi was?interviewed by Geographical Magazine in a piece on the potential of genetically modified mosquitoes to help end malaria, highlighting the ecological studies in Ghana. Read the full article here.

Dr. Jonathan Kayondo was featured in German national newspaper DITA - Die digitale Tageszeitung ("Taz") in a piece on gene drive research. Read the full article here.

Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté was featured in a piece in the African Mirror, showcasing Target Malaria Burkina Faso's research and community engagement initiatives.?Read the full article here .

Target Malaria was mentioned in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation article written by?Kedest Tesfagiorgis discussing the importance of community in solving global health issues. Read the full article here.

Dr. Charles Francis Mugoya was interviewed for a piece in Ugandan outlet New Vision on the role of Ugandan researchers in the fight against malaria and the potential of genetic approaches. Read the full article here.

Bill Gates mentioned Target Malaria in a tweet about the 纽约时报 article by Stephanie Nolen "The Gamble: Can Genetically Modified Mosquitoes End Disease?". View Tweet here.

Events

Bill Gates mentioned Target Malaria during his Keynote Address at the annual Grand Challenges meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Watch here.

Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté spoke on a panel alongside Youssou N’Dour,?Dr. Ify Aniebo and moderator,?Ra?ssa Oko?, at the annual Grand Challenges meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Watch here. ?Also, read?Professor Diabaté's blog discussing his time at the meeting.?

Target Malaria colleagues attended the 9th Annual PAMCA Pan-African Mosquito Control Association Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they?presented posters, led presentations and took part in panels. The team helped organised and teach the Gene Drive Short Course and Gene Drive Foundation Course. Read the blog by Divine Dzokoto on highlights from the event.

Krystal Birungi was the keynote speaker at the Harvard Medical School Precision Medicine Without Borders Annual Conference. She also spoke at an event in Nairobi organised by Malaria No More at Africa Climate Week. Speech will be uploaded here by organisers.

Target Malaria and MalariaGEN will be hosting an X (formerly Twitter) Spaces event to discuss 'The future of Gene Drive and Genomic Surveillance in Africa'. Please join us on the 14th of November at 11am GMT on X?to hear the conversation. You can set a reminder by clicking here.

Target Malaria members took part and presented their posters at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Chicago. Read the blog on communicating creatively about genetically modified mosquitoes, written for ASTMH by Stephanie Wilkes Moumtzis .

New resources?

Learn more about Target Malaria Burkina Faso’s work through the newly updated national factsheet. You can view the new version here .?

Watch the new Stakeholder Engagement animation video on Target Malaria's community agreement model.?Also available in French. ??

The Young Scientist Network has a?new webpage !?Here you can find blogs by the young scientists working with Target Malaria to end malaria.

We have updated the?educational material on the website. You can find the card game, the updated comic book and the colouring book on this page.

The country montage for Burkina Faso is now available in?French. This outlines the work taking place in Burkina Faso. It can be viewed here.

New Publications?

Ben Bellekom , Owen T Lewis, Talya Hackett . Latitudinal and anthropogenic effects on the structuring of networks linking blood-feeding flies and their vertebrate hosts. Med Vet Entomol. 2023 doi: 10.1111/mve.12671 ?

Qureshi A, John B. Connolly . Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control Anopheles gambiae the mosquito vector of human malaria. Malar J. 2023 Aug 14;22(1):234. doi: 10.1186/s12936-023-04665-5