London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

UK

The Malaria Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) facilitates cross-disciplinary linkages between the school and malaria research in endemic areas. It brings together more than 140 staff and students working on malaria in the areas of epidemiology, immunology and vaccine development, molecular and cell biology of the malaria parasite, drug discovery and evaluation, vector control and economic and social studies.

The immunology unit has undertaken numerous studies since 1985 aimed at investigating the relationship between acquired immune responses (cellular and humoral) and protective immunity to malaria in The Gambia, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and, most recently, Thailand. These studies have introduced novel laboratory approaches to immuno-epidemiological research, and used innovative approaches to data analysis, which have subsequently been widely applied by other groups.

The LSHTM is part of the Joint Malaria Programme, through which the School collaborates with the National Institute for Medical Research of Tanzania, the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College and the University of Copenhagen.

People

• Eleanor Riley (MalariaGEN Investigator)
• Chris Drakeley (MalariaGEN Investigator)
• Hugh Reyburn (MalariaGEN Investigator)
• Alphaxard Manjurano (MalariaGEN Data Fellow)

How the team are contributing to MalariaGEN

The Joint Malaria Programme, together with the LSHTM, is recruiting samples for Consortial Project 1, Consortial Project 2 and Consortial Project 3.

For Consortial Project 1, the team recruited 500 severe malaria cases from Teule Hospital in Muheza and 500 matched controls from the community from which the cases came.

For Consortial Project 2, cross-sectional surveys were undertaken at six different altitudes between 150m and 1800m. Four villages were included at each level and in total about 12,000 people (0-45 years of age) were surveyed. From these, 8500 DNA, plasma and serological data have been collected.

Consortial Project 3 samples were collected from family trios in three communities in low-, medium- and high-transmission areas from the Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions.