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| Heidelberg, 5 April 2006 |
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| With joint forces against Malaria
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Scientists from all over the world tackle the global threat of Malaria
at the second annual BioMalPar conference
Press
Release 5 April 2006 [PDF]
Today the network of excellence
for Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite
[BioMalPar], will bring together the world's elite in the field of
Malaria research at the European Molecular Biology
Laboratory [EMBL] in Heidelberg. At the second annual
BioMalPar conference, organised jointly by Institut Pasteur
Paris [France], Leiden University Medical Centre [The
Netherlands], Imperial College London [UK] and the
University of Heidelberg [Germany], some of the most eminent
experts address the hot questions around Malaria and
present their newest research findings.
Malaria remains one of the world's biggest health problems.
Every 30 seconds Malaria kills a child in Africa and of the 500
million people that get infected with the disease each year well
over one million die. Malaria is an infectious disease that is
caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. Plasmodium survives
in certain types of mosquitoes, whose bites transmit the
microbe to humans where it causes many problems, but most
commonly severe, recurring fever attacks. Over 40 per cent of
the world's population in more than 90 countries is currently at
risk and the numbers are increasing steadily.
"Malaria is a disease of poverty and it is on the rise", says Andy
Waters, who heads the Malaria Research group at the Leiden
University Medical Centre and is one of the organisers of the
BioMalPar conference, "it affects large parts of Africa, Asia and
the Americas and with the current failure to find a suitable vaccine
and the failure of our frontline affordable drugs the misery
caused by malaria is multiplying. Although scientists have
been working to find cures for a long time much of that
research has been fragmented. The BioMalPar network is a new
European mechanism to join forces and bring together the best
European scientists to collectively search for solutions."
BioMalPar, funded by the European Union's Malaria Initiative,
is an effort of 20 European and African institutions to achieve
the required collaboration between scientists. Representatives
of basic and applied research pool their complementary
expertise, resources and ideas in a network of excellence to
tackle Malaria in a coordinated fashion.
The network organises exchanges of personnel between its
European and African members to integrate extensive theoretical
knowledge with the field experience of scientists from
affected countries. It creates a direct flow of information from
the laboratory to the implementation in malaria-endemic
regions and aims at strengthening the research capacity in
Africa.
"Since its foundation in 2004, BioMalPar has greatly advanced
our understanding of the biological mechanisms that underlie
Malaria", says Fotis Kafatos, Professor of Immunogenomics at
Imperial College London and former Director General at
EMBL, who is one of the organisers of the conference. "Without
such fundamental knowledge, the longer-term prospects of
addressing the challenge of malaria would be bleak."
The annual conference is an opportunity for all members of the
pan-continental partnership to meet and exchange their best
practices, present their newest findings and discuss the future
direction of Malaria research. Today, in front of an audience of
250 international scientists, topics like the genetic and molecular
basis of the parasite's disease mechanisms, genetic modifications
of mosquitoes to prevent spreading of the disease and
the latest advances in drug and vaccine development are discussed
in seminars and poster sessions.
Press Contact
Anna-Lynn Wegener
Press Officer
EMBL
Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 6221 387 8452
E-mail: wegener@embl.de
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