CODE MALARIA
The overall goal of this project (CODE MALARIA: Eradication developments for the decade) is to produce effective four high tech products for the control and final eradication of malaria starting with Nigeria. The malaria parasite needs man and the mosquito to continue surviving. Therefore, our first targeted product (from project I), a cuisine of anti-malaria drugs (design and production cost is expected to be cheap, to enhance large scale usage possibility) is to allow rapid cure of malaria in humans. This is to reduce to zero the chance of an uninfected mosquito to be infected after a bite. The second targeted product (from project II), an advanced but human friendly pesticide (a cocktail of agents) is to help delete rapidly all malaria infected mosquitoes.
The third (from project III) aimed at producing a mathematical modeling for the prediction of mosquitos’ meta-population dynamics towards understanding and validating the seasonal dynamics of this vector. An integration of novel genetic control methods such as SIT (Sterile Insect Technique), lethal densovirus and genetically manipulated endopathogenic fungi, into this mathematical modeling, will allow us to push down the population of the mosquitoes in some areas as may be necessary during the deployment phase of the first two products. And to sustain the gains of the expected malaria eradication after the deployment of the CODE MALARIA technologies, we have another project (project IV), geared at creating a technology (a hand-held machine) that will allow us to detect malaria infection at the liver stage. From the understanding of our environment, in particular West Africa, it is perhaps the place where malaria originated and from the weather set-up, it will continue to be reservoirs of mosquitoes. The malaria parasite goes through the liver before arriving at the blood stage where it manifests.
It is therefore imperative to note that many lives (in particular the people with Sickle cell anemia) will be saved if these parasites can be detected and treated at the asymptomatic liver stage instead of waiting till the disease manifestation at the blood stage. The expected result of the successful execution and application of our work will make Nigeria and eventually Africa, free of malaria infected humans and mosquitoes like the western world. Currently Covenant is investing about directly Twenty-Four Millions Naira to project I and another Fourteen Millions Naira to project IV, in addition to various Millions of dollars from external funding bodies.
The last newspaper interview from Vanguard Nigeria can be found at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/10/we-aim-to-eradicate-malaria-in-africa-ezekiel-adebiyi/
The account in this editorial account also present key landmarks so far on the project till October 2012.
Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa)
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative aims to facilitate a contemporary research approach to the study of genomics and environmental determinants of common diseases with the goal of improving the health of African populations. To accomplish this, the H3Africa Initiative aims to contribute to the development of the necessary expertise among African scientists and to establish networks of African investigators.
H3AbioNet
Covenant University Wins NIH Research Grant Award.H3ABioNet is an NIH-funded Pan African Bioinformatics network comprising 32 Bioinformatics research groups distributed amongst 15 African countries and 2 partner institutions based in the USA. For a complete list of partners, see Consortium Members. The main goal of H3ABioNet is to create a sustainable Pan African Bioinformatics Network to support H3Africa researchers and their projects through bioinformatics capacity development on the African continent.