Marie Onyamboko: Advancing malaria research in DRC

My name is Marie Onyamboko, I'm the Clinical Director of KIMORU, the Kinshasa Medical Oxford Research Unit, which is a collaboration between the Kinshasa School of Public Health and MORU. We work on improving maternal and children’s health through infectious disease control, with a focus on the impact of malaria in these two vulnerable groups. With the KIMORU staff experienced in conducting clinical trials in tropical medicine, we are also engaged on research on antimicrobial resistance.

A recent research project we have studied is MIRANDA. In this study, we have shown that using pregnant women instead of children as a sentinel population for the genomic surveillance of malaria is an efficient way of tracking the mutation linked to drug resistance in Plasmodium. The idea was to take two drops of blood on filter paper from all pregnant women presenting to antenatal care for further surveillance. The strategy may look simple, but when you understand that in the DRC the antenatal care services are well implemented everywhere, even in the remote areas, this is a highly potential intervention because this can produce continuous data on surveillance without interruption. The national malaria control programme can use it to detect resistance early but also to adapt or change strategy when needed before it fails in the general population.

The big questions surrounding malaria in the DRC are drug and vector resistance, especially now that we have emergence of a strain of Plasmodium which is resistant to antimalarial drugs, but we have also the need of improving the diagnosis and surveillance of malaria to detect early the resistance or the change of sensitivity in Plasmodium. There is also the need of understanding for mitigation the co-infection with other diseases, as they really worsen the outcome of malaria, and at the end the need also of innovative strategies that are adapted to the challenging context of malaria in the DRC.

There is a direct benefit for patients for their participation to the clinical trial, maybe by receiving free drugs or free care from highly trained staff. But more in general, I would say that our work has ensured that vulnerable groups of pregnant women and children have received the more efficient available drugs for malaria, and also their specific needs, like the need of correct dosage or regimen of antimalarial drugs in pregnancy, these needs are addressed.

My line of research aims to prevent a global health catastrophe, where the antimalarial treatment may become ineffective, because this would reverse decades of progress made in malaria control and will increase mortality. Malaria is still there; we have not yet overcome it. I'm committed to continue to work in that field and contribute to the global transition to the triple combination therapy, and also to find effective treatment for at risk populations, but also in addressing public health strategies to combat resistance, safeguarding progress in malaria control, and elimination efforts. 

This interview was recorded in September 2025.