| Research Overview |
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Our malaria research aims directly to improve the treatment of the disease globally. The focus of MORU is on the treatment of severe malaria, mechanisms and spread of anitmalarial drug resistance, and the pathophysiology of falciparum and vivax malaria. These are not isolated areas, i.e. studies on pathophysiology are used to formulate novel adjuvant therapies and studies on drug resistance translate into recommendations on the use of artemisinin based combination therapies. Laboratory studies are conducted in our laboratories in Bangkok, though there is a network of collaborators (see appendix). The laboratories in Bangkok also support the clinical studies. Clinical studies on severe malaria are conducted in Rourkela, Orissa, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh. Moreover, the multicenter trial ‘SEAQUAMAT’ also uses sites in Myanmar and Papua Indonesia. Fewer severe malaria patients are recruited nowadays in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border, where the focus has shifted to detailed studies in uncomplicated malaria. A clinical study on vivax malaria is currently conducted in Calcutta, India. Microbiology research in the Unit is led by Dr Sharon Peacock, who works with a dedicated team of Thai clinicians, scientists and technicians. Prominent among these are Lek (laboratory manager and expert on melioidosis and leptospirosis microbiology), Dr Wirongrong Chierakul (Kae - senior research clinician), Narisara Chantratita (immunologist), Piengchan Sonthayanon (molecular biology of leptospirosis), Dr Mongkol Vesaratchavest (molecular biology), and Dr Stuart Blacksell (rickettsial culture and serology). Although the Bangkok Unit laboratories provide a scientific and logistical base for microbiology, most of the clinical and diagnostic research takes place in the up-country field sites. At the long-established Ubon Ratchathani site we study melioidosis and cryptococcal meningitis; at Udon Thani Hospital we study leptospirosis and scrub typhus, and plan in the future to recruit to studies the large number of melioidosis and cryptococcal meningitis patients admitted there; and in Mae Sod we provide microbiological support for SMRU, currently for a study of fever in pregnancy and hopefully in the future for the pneumococcal vaccine trial. We also provide microbiological support for the Laos Project, and for the Angkor Children’s Hospital in Siem Riep, Cambodia. We are in the process of setting up and becoming a part of the new Thailand Melioidosis Clinical Trials Group. This collaboration, based in Khon Kaen University, aims to coordinate large multi-centre trials into the treatment of melioidosis. |
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