BASIC SCIENCES
Mission & Background |Training | Collaborating partners | Research Areas | Publications

Mission

Our goal is to provide state of the art molecular and immunological resources (equipment and human capacity) to support programs conducting research on malaria vaccines and anti-malarial drugs. We also do basic research to understand pathophysiology of malaria.

Background

USAMRU-K has been conducting research on malaria vaccines and anti-malarial drugs for over two decades. The ever increasing demand for high quality laboratory support has fueled unparalleled growth in laboratory infrastructure and human capacity. Today, we pride ourselves in being able to provide the state of the art molecular and immunologic assays to various IND studies in humans. In addition, the lab conducts studies on: 1) pathogenesis of severe malarial anemia and cerebral malaria, 2) genetic basis for resistance to malaria and 3) quorum sensing as a method of self-regulation of malaria parasite density.

Located in Kisumu town, the laboratory has a combined floor space of 11,000 ft². Half of this space houses 4 distinct labs: 1) Molecular biology, 2) Clinical laboratory, 3) Shared facility for flow cytometry and immunofluorescence and 4) immunology/malaria culture. The molecular biology lab is dedicated to PCR diagnosis, quantitative gene expression determination and genotyping by both conventional and real time PCR. Assays performed include detection of natural immunity traits to malaria such as sickle cell, alpha-thalassaemia and G6PD deficiency that are of interest to malaria vaccine and anti-malaria drug programs. The clinical lab provides hemogram (CBC) and clinical chemistry support in human use studies. The shared laboratory provides flow-cytometric and immunofluorescence assays. The immunology lab is dedicated to the performance of assays such as ELISA and cell mediated immunity. The laboratory has a large -70 °C sample storage capacity currently holding thousands of serum and plasma samples. Our liquid N2 sample storage capacity exceeds 50,000 and currently holds more than 1000 wild type malaria parasite stabilates. Significantly, the lab is located next to Nyanza Provincial General Hospital. This allows easy access to clinical specimens and conduct of hospital based studies.

Training