Infectivity of symptomatic malaria patients to <em>Anopheles farauti</em> colony mosquitoes in Papua New Guinea (Publications)
to mosquitoes is an understudied bottleneck in the transmission of malaria. Direct membrane feeding assays (DMFA) allow detailed malaria transmission studies from humans to mosquitoes. Especially for Plasmodium [...] were performed with venous blood collected from rapid diagnostic test (RDT) positive symptomatic malaria patients and subsequently analysed by light microscopy and quantitative real time polymerase chain
Emulator-based Bayesian optimization for efficient multi-objective calibration of an individual-based model of malaria (Publications)
framework employing Gaussian process or machine learning emulator functions to calibrate a complex malaria transmission simulator. We demonstrate our approach by optimizing over a high-dimensional parameter [...] a portfolio of multiple fitting objectives built from datasets capturing the natural history of malaria transmission and disease progression. Our approach quickly outperforms previous calibrations, yielding
Influence of testing modality on bioefficacy for the evaluation of Interceptor® G2 mosquito nets to combat malaria mosquitoes in Tanzania (Publications)
against pyrethroid-resistant strains, demonstrating the usefulness of chlorfenapyr in mitigation of malaria.
The impact of <em>Loa loa</em> microfilaraemia on research subject retention during a whole sporozoite malaria vaccine trial in Equatorial Guinea (Publications)
300 (2.7%) residents of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, during a Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite malaria vaccine clinical trial. Only one subject was found to have microfilaraemia on his first exam; parasites
The phylodynamic and spread of the invasive Asian malaria vectors, <em>Anopheles stephensi</em>, in Sudan (Publications)
Anopheles stephensi is an invasive Asian malaria vector that initially emerged in Africa in 2012 and was reported in Sudan in 2019. We investigated the distribution and population structure of An. stephensi
Diagnostic performance and comparison of ultrasensitive and conventional rapid diagnostic test, thick blood smear and quantitative PCR for detection... (Publications)
BACKGROUND: Progress towards malaria elimination has stagnated, partly because infections persisting at low parasite densities comprise a large reservoir contributing to ongoing malaria transmission and are difficult [...] and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) during a controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) study conducted in malaria exposed adults (NCT03590340). METHODS: Blood samples were collected from healthy [...] administered by direct venous inoculation. qPCR (18s ribosomal...
Sub-national tailoring of malaria interventions in mainland Tanzania: simulation of the impact of strata-specific intervention combinations using... (Publications)
2015-2020 national malaria strategic plan (NMSP) and the epidemiological risk stratification at the council level in 2018. METHODS: Intervention mixes, selected by the National Malaria Control Programme [...] either based on estimates from the malaria indicator survey in 2016 or set to a hypothetical target of 85%. A previously calibrated mathematical model in OpenMalaria was used to compare intervention impact [...] BACKGROUND: To accelerate progress against malaria in high burden countries, a...
Evaluating malaria prevalence and land cover across varying transmission intensity in Tanzania using a cross-sectional survey of school-aged children (Publications)
n of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa has become increasingly stratified following decades of malaria control interventions. The extent to which environmental and land cover risk factors for malaria may differ [...] and could provide actionable targets to maximize the success of malaria control efforts. METHODS: This study used cross-sectional malaria survey data from a nationally representative cohort of school-aged [...] land cover and malaria prevalence within three distinct strata of...
The 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 is an essential upstream activator of protein kinase A in malaria parasites (Publications)
t protein kinase A (PKA) signalling is essential for the proliferation of Plasmodium falciparum malaria blood stage parasites. The mechanisms regulating the activity of the catalytic subunit PfPKAc, however [...] function has not been investigated in gametocytes, the sexual blood stage forms that are essential for malaria transmission. By studying a conditional PfPKAc knockdown (cKD) mutant, we confirm the essential role