Binghamton University is one of the few places in the world to house research of large samples of drug-resistant malaria parasites after being awarded a $1.5 million grant this summer from the National Institute of Health.
BU scientists will observe 11,000 malaria samples from New Guinea, Bismark and Melanesia that date from the 1950s through ’80s in hopes of understanding how the deadly malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum mutated to resist the treatment drug chloroquine.
‘It is very exciting, studying malaria from multiple perspectives,’ said Chim Chan, a biological anthropology graduate student and winner of the Hunt Best Student Presentation Award for the preliminary data on this research. Chan will study the samples with J. Koji Lum, who is the anthropology undergraduate director and principal investigator on the project.
‘We have a huge series of samples to watch mutations over time,’ Lum said. ‘We can get a general idea about how the parasite combats our medication. We will have direct information to see how quick the parasite mutates.’
BU is the only place researchers can look at large samples across time, primarily because decades ago, today’s technology did not exist.
‘A friend in Sweden threw out many samples ten years ago. Scientists thought they have learned all they could from them,’ Lum said.
But research at BU is going to be as efficient as possible, according to Lum.
‘We don’t know what we will be able to do five years from now ‘ we don’t want to compromise the samples,’ he said.
Currently Lum and his team are extracting DNA very carefully so the samples can be used again in the future.
And while malaria is deadly, Chan isn’t worried about working closely with the samples.
‘We exercise proper caution,’ Chan said, ‘but the blood samples are not infectious ‘ you need mosquitoes to transmit malaria.’
Malaria kills one to three million people each year. ‘Most of which are children,’ Lum said. ‘Three to nine thousand people die a day.’
The malaria parasite kills its victim by digesting red blood cells, which are needed to carry oxygen to body organs. In the 1950s it was found that chloroquine prevents the parasites from doing so. However, over decades the parasites evolved and gained the ability to remove the chloroquine and destroy a red blood cell.
The sometimes fatal disease can be treated and cured. But for those who cannot afford treatment in many parts of the Pacific and Africa, malaria continues to be a significant cause of death. Often adults who have lived in the communities for many years develop high immunity to the disease but can still carry the parasite. According to Lum, a mosquito can transmit malaria from a highly immune adult to a child with lower immunity.
‘In the tropics many children die because they have lower immunity,’ Lum said. ‘We need to treat the entire population.’
According to Lum, the problem is largely economic as highly developed countries can afford to treat those with malaria.
‘If we could give everybody $10 to treat every adult, we can eradicate malaria,’ Lum said.
Lum has always been interested in Pacific island research because ‘I’ve been doing research there since graduate school,’ he said. ‘I want to benefit the people I’ve been working with.’