This is a Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with aims at supporting capacity-building efforts in malaria mathematical modeling across sub-Saharan Africa with a specific focus on vector control, to help maximize its impact and reduce malaria burden.
Vector control is by far the most effective intervention for reducing malaria infection. It has contributed 78% of the total reduction of the disease burden from 2000-2015. Progress however has slowed since 2015 due to insecticide resistance and the recent COVID pandemic, and there are calls for investments in new interventions. Gene drive is one of the most promising vector control approaches on the horizon. It requires the release of small numbers of modified mosquitoes with the aim of suppressing their populations or blocking the transmission of pathogens. Unfortunately, Africa, where this technology would likely be most impactful, does not yet have the technical capacity to run it. Furthermore, there are still outstanding research questions to address in order to predict the potential efficacy and safe use of the approach in the field. While the technology is still being developed, Africa needs to anticipate in preparing the environment and building the necessary technical platform and investing in the right human capital to ensure safe and smooth transition from the bench to the field. The current programme will fill this gap by developing technical and analytical skills of a critical mass of African scientists in relevant areas to the future implementation of gene drive including, mosquito population ecology, advanced molecular biology, genetics/genomics, and transgenesis.
