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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.
Maneerat Ekkapongpisit: Translating research into real-world impact
Maneerat Ekkapongpisit focuses on translational and implementation research, helping diagnostic innovations move from lab to real-world healthcare settings. Her work supports clinical validation, regulatory approval, and health policy integration in Thailand. She investigates how research systems can better enable impactful, patient-centred innovations and advocates for adaptive funding and research management frameworks.
Ni Ni Tun: HIV among key populations in Myanmar
Ni Ni Tun focuses on HIV prevention and treatment among vulnerable populations in Myanmar, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender women, and people who inject drugs. Her research addresses barriers to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis access, links between drug use and mental health, and strategies to reduce high-risk behaviours, especially during conflict-related crises, to improve healthcare inclusion.
Ni Ni Tun: HIV among key populations in Myanmar
Ni Ni Tun focuses on HIV prevention and treatment among vulnerable populations in Myanmar, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender women, and people who inject drugs. Her research addresses barriers to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis access, links between drug use and mental health, and strategies to reduce high-risk behaviours, especially during conflict-related crises, to improve healthcare inclusion.
Marie Onyamboko: Advancing malaria research in DRC
Marie focuses on malaria in pregnant women and children. Her work includes the MIRANDA study, which demonstrates that using pregnant women for genomic surveillance effectively tracks drug-resistant malaria. Her research supports targeted treatment, improved diagnostics, and national strategies to combat antimalarial resistance in the DRC.
Germana Bancone: Red blood cells disorders in low-resource settings
Germana investigates red blood cell disorders and anaemia in low-resource settings, focusing on diagnostics, causes and treatment strategies. Projects include evaluating portable G6PD tests and studying iron supplementation’s impact on vaccine response in pregnant women. The goal is to improve targeted treatments and diagnostics for anaemia in vulnerable populations.
Malaria & Critical illness
The Malaria & Critical Illness Department focuses on the diagnosis, patho-physiology, prevention, elimination, and treatment of malaria. A critical issue for the department is the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance. In addition, our research has a focus on improving critical care in resource limited settings.
Emerging infections
Asia has long been the source of infectious diseases that have escalated into epidemics or pandemics, notably SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. As new pandemic threats continue to arise, research at MORU focuses on genomic and immunological surveillance of emerging infections, the development and evaluation of new methods of assessing therapeutics, and their large-scale assessment in order to inform policies and practices.
About MORU
The MORU Tropical Health Network, which hosts the ‘Thailand Wellcome Africa and Asia Programme’, conducts targeted clinical and public health research that aims to discover and develop appropriate, practical, affordable interventions that measurably improve the health of people living in resource-limited parts of the world.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Greater participation and inclusivity, as well as recognising the value of diversity, lead to fairer opportunities to fulfil everybody's potential. The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) is an advisory committee established in consultation with the Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM), University of Oxford, Athena Swan Committee and the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU).
Bioethics and Engagement
MORU runs an active community and stakeholder engagement programme, aiming to improve health and wellbeing in low-resource settings. We work with underserved groups to ensure our research is ethical, inclusive, and responsive to local needs. Using community advisory boards, participatory projects, and interdisciplinary partnerships, we address complex global health issues such as antimicrobial resistance and tuberculosis. Our innovative methods—arts, co-creation, and community conversations—help build trust and support equitable health outcomes. We also conduct research into bioethics, data sharing, and effective engagement practices, contributing to best practice in community and public engagement across diverse, low-resource environments.
Research Areas
Patient-centred research is the core of our research activities, spanning 5 research units and over 50 research sites in Asia and Africa. Our integrated, highly collaborative, flexible structure of 5 research units and ~ 50 clinical research sites across Asia and Africa allows us to address global and regional health problems by conducting targeted clinical and public health research that discover and develop appropriate, practical, affordable interventions that measurably improve the health of people living in resource-limited parts of the world.
Celine Caillet: Detecting substandard and falsified medical products
The Medicine Quality Research Group focuses on substandard and falsified medicines, critical issues often overlooked in LMICs. Recent tragic incidents underscore the urgent need for better regulatory oversight. The group explores portable screening technologies to empower regulators in identifying and preventing such medicines, potentially mitigating widespread harm and economic strain on health systems.
Ben Cooper: Drug-resistant infections and disease dynamics
Infectious diseases carry a huge impact and developing interventions remains a priority. A recent trial in Southeast Asia aimed at shortening antibiotic treatment for ventilator-associated pneumonia, reducing side effects and the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Collaborations underline the global AMR burden and the need for effective solutions, from improved antibiotics use to novel diagnostics and vaccines, crucial amid rising challenges.
Bipin Adhikari: Community engagement for malaria elimination
Community engagement is important for ethical research, understanding community vulnerabilities and aligning priorities to bridge the gap between researchers and the communities they serve. MORU researchers focus on social aspects of infectious diseases, primarily malaria, with recent projects in Laos, Cambodia, Tanzania, and Bangladesh. Using a bottom-up approach helps addressing power imbalances for an authentic engagement.
Paul Turner: Improving data for infection management
The ACORN project gathers clinical, microbiology, and antibiotic use data from nine countries in Asia and Africa to understand the burden and impact of antibiotic resistance on patient treatment and outcomes. It aims to improve direct patient care, generate treatment guidelines, and inform interventions to combat antibiotic resistance globally, ensuring better antibiotics for all.
Carlo Perrone: Improving scrub typhus detection and prevention
In northern Thailand, MORU researchers focus on scrub typhus, a disease transmitted by small bugs in rural environments. A simple diagnostic cartridge for rapid detection would avoid critical delays and issues of current antibody-based tests. If accessible in small hospitals, this improved diagnostics has the potential to save lives by providing timely treatment. Involving local communities is essential to address the endemic nature of scrub typhus in rural areas.
Claire Chewapreecha: Melioidosis genomics
Genetic investigations into melioidosis, profiling both bacteria and patients, help understand disease acquisition and outcomes. Furthermore, identifying prevalent harmful bacterial genes supports vaccine development, and the development of CRISPR-Cas-based tests responds to an urgent need for rapid diagnosis that can reduce the detection time to under three hours with higher sensitivity. Applications developed in resource-limited settings show improved global applicability and impact on patients’ outcomes.