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On 4 June 2020, after a week of increasing scientific concern and scrutiny, first The Lancet, then the New England Journal of Medicine, retracted studies that were based on inaccessible data. The studies have been extremely damaging to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine COVID-19 clinical trials around the globe. MORU researchers played a key role in bringing this scandal to light, whose consequences continue to play out.
Professor Sir Nicholas White obituary in The Times: brilliant clinical scientist
24 February 2026
Professor Sir Nicholas White was a pioneering tropical medicine specialist whose work transformed malaria treatment worldwide, as written in The Times. He championed artemisinin-based combination therapies and intravenous artesunate, saving millions of lives. As head of MORU, he built influential research networks across Asia and Africa, publishing over 1,300 papers and shaping global policy. Knighted and widely honoured, he remained active in research until his death in 2026, aged 74.
Professor Sir Nicholas White OBE KCMG FRS
3 February 2026
The Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), the University of Oxford and the Nuffield Department of Medicine greatly mourn the death of Professor Sir Nicholas White, a distinguished clinician and scientist who was internationally recognised as the leading figure in improving the treatment of malaria worldwide, and whose work has made a lasting contribution to global health research - saving millions of lives worldwide. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.
Back by popular demand: The AMR Circus!
30 January 2026
Following the success of the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Circus in Cambodia during May 2025, the Phare Ponleu Selpak (Brightness of the Arts) School students were back with new performances in Jan 2026.
Francois Nosten on Fever Pitch podcast, on a collapsing border where medicine meets war
6 January 2026
Professor Francois Nosten, Director of MORU's Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), reflects on the decades he’s spent on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, a place of relentless upheaval and quiet endurance. From the 1980s onward, he has lived amid war, displacement, and disease, building a fragile bridge between science and survival. He characterizes the border as a wound that never quite closes – people cross not for opportunity but to escape a state that devours its own. What he describes is not steady progress but a cycle of collapse and recovery, every advance shadowed by the return of violence and the onset of disease.
Professor Nicholas Day Honoured for Services to Global Health
6 January 2026
Professor Nicholas Day has been appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his outstanding contributions to global health research in the Kings New Years Honours 2026. With a career spanning over three decades at OUCRU and MORU, his leadership in infectious disease research has significantly advanced health equity in low-resource settings.
SMRU’s ‘TB Village’: A lifeline for marginalised patients on the Thai–Myanmar border
6 January 2026
In a settlement of bamboo cabins, among mango and jackfruit trees, the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit runs a secluded clinic known as 'TB Village.' Reachable only by dirt roads, this sanctuary provides critical treatment and quarantine for dozens of marginalized Burmese tuberculosis patients. Here, at SMRU, patients receive care for diseases like tuberculosis and malaria. The unit works to heal patients and prevent outbreaks from crossing borders, providing a lifeline of safety.
Oxford-led researchers develop a low-cost rapid test to identify heat-damaged vaccines
17 December 2025
Researchers from Medicine Quality Research Group, the University of Oxford and their collaborators have developed and evaluated a novel low-cost, rapid method to identify heat-exposed sucrose-containing vaccines without the need for sophisticated laboratory equipment.
Research Spotlight: The IRONMUM Trial at SMRU
16 December 2025
IRONMUM is one example of SMRU’s long-standing collaboration with global partners to address critical health challenges in low- and middle-income settings. Through partnerships with institutions such as the University of Oxford and the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), SMRU conducts research that is firmly grounded in local realities, ensuring that preventive strategies and treatments are effective where they are needed most. Working on the Thailand–Myanmar border since 1986, SMRU combines research, clinical care, and humanitarian action to improve the health of mothers, children, and vulnerable populations affected by infectious diseases and limited access to healthcare.
Rapid, low-cost tests can help prevent child deaths from contaminated medicinal syrups
5 December 2025
Researchers at the University of Oxford and their collaborators have demonstrated that simple, rapid, and inexpensive tests can detect deadly contaminants in medicinal syrups - contaminants that have tragically led to the deaths of hundreds of children worldwide.
Analysis of SMRU samples could lead to vaccine for multiple childhood infections
21 November 2025
The first large-scale genomic exploration of H. influenzae, a bacteria that causes 200m infections per year in children worldwide, has revealed extensive antibiotic resistance and uncovered genetic clues that could help in future vaccine development, say researchers from Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Universities of Oxford and Oslo, and MORU’s Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) and Cambodia-Oxford Medical Research Unit (COMRU).
Rose McGready honoured for her work to improve healthcare for Thai-Myanmar border communities
20 November 2025
On 17 Nov at a ceremony in Canberra, Prof Rose McGready, Deputy Director of the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), was honoured with the 2026 ACT Australian of the Year Award for her extraordinary dedication over 30 years to improving healthcare for displaced and marginalised communities along the Thai-Myanmar border which, coupled with clinical and research work that has changed the treatment of malaria around the world, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding women, has saved the lives of countless mothers and their babies.
New study evaluates accuracy of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria
7 November 2025
A new study, published in Malaria Journal, assessed the accuracy of rapid malaria tests (RDTs) across 12 sites in India and found that these tests were sub-optimal for detecting P. vivax malaria.
Faulty malaria rapid test raises global concerns, say MORU researchers
4 November 2025
A new study published in Malaria Journal warns that a widely used malaria rapid diagnostic test by Abbott Diagnostics may be delivering false-negative results, risking delayed treatment and fuelling malaria transmission. Researchers from SMRU have called for the test’s withdrawal, citing evidence from Southeast Asia.
MODRA Cohort 2: From ideas to action
4 November 2025
Following the success of the first MODRA workshop in September, where participants developed strong research grant proposals, the MODRA Cohort 2 researchers reconvened at OUCRU Ho Chi Minh City for Workshop 2, focused on taking their projects from paper to practice.
Ensitrelvir shows strong antiviral activity against COVID-19 in first head-to-head comparison with Paxlovid
28 October 2025
The oral antiviral ensitrelvir is a highly effective treatment for COVID-19, showing potent in-vivo antiviral activity comparable to ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), say MORU, Mahidol and University of Oxford researchers in a major international study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Antimalarial resistance deserves higher priority in global AMR strategy
15 October 2025
In a new commentary for BMJ Global Health, University of Oxford researchers argue that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) interventions often ignore morally relevant differences between microbes. They highlight that antimalarial resistance disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries, particularly children in sub-Saharan Africa, and deserves greater attention in global health research and intervention priorities. The team calls for more equitable resource allocation, policy change, and advocacy to ensure AMR responses are just and inclusive.
FD-TACT malaria treatment trial launches patient recruitment in Rwanda
8 October 2025
A Phase 3 pivotal trial, led by MORU and funded by Japan’s Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT), has begun to evaluate a novel fixed-dose triple artemisinin-based combination treatment (FD-TACT) for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
MORU Community Advisory Boards meet in Bangkok
26 September 2025
From 21-22 Aug, twenty five MORU Major International Programme (MIP) colleagues attended the second CAB-NET meeting in Bangkok and online. Run by MORU Bioethics & Engagement (B&E), CAB-NET is a network that bring together the facilitators of community advisory boards (CABs) run by the MORU MIP to share activity updates, ideas and best practices, training, and network.
Joel Tarning awarded RSTMH’s 2025 Chalmers Medal
25 September 2025
Professor Joel Tarning, head of MORU’s Clinical Pharmacology Department, has been honoured with the award of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s Chalmers Medal for his exceptional contribution to the field of clinical pharmacology of neglected tropical diseases, and in particular antimalarial therapy.
A migrant mother’s 4-hr walk for antenatal care
24 September 2025
On the Thai-Myanmar border, life is often a daily struggle, especially for expectant mothers like migrant day labourer Daw Mu (name changed for privacy), who lives in a village near Jaydi Koh in Tak Province’s Phop Phra District. Now three months pregnant with her second child, Daw Mu must walk 4 hours to the Jaydi Koh SMRU/BHF outreach clinic for antenatal care, often with her four-year-old son by her side.