"The successful NTU-BNI joint project has led to the creation of the world's first database to predict the functions of more than 2,500 genes of the malaria parasite previously unknown. The database would be useful to scientists around the world who are developing new vaccines and drugs," says Dr. Tim Gilberger, Head, Malaria Research at BNI.

Preventing malaria infection is important because resistance to anti-malarial drugs is a growing problem worldwide. There is currently no vaccine for malaria, which is widespread in poorer countries where it remains a hindrance to economic development. Also of growing concern to scientists is the confirmation of the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.

In successfully using transcriptional profiling to study the behavior of the malaria parasite, NTU's researchers have ventured into the unknown and paved the way for future breakthroughs in healthcare.

"The wealth of new information arising from our extensive four-year study is a major contribution to the worldwide effort to better understand and treat malaria," said Prof Peter Rainer Preiser, Deputy Director of NTU's BioSciences Research Centre and a member of the NTU research team.

Source: Nanyang Technological University