Annual Report 2008 - 2009 - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

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VECTOR GROUP VECTOR GROUP 28 LSTM ANNUAL REPORT
BREAKTHROUGH SHOWS GENETIC BASIS FOR RESISTANCE TO INSECTICIDES Research led by the Vector Group at LSTM has identified the genetic basis for resistance to commonly-used insecticides in one of the major malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa. Malaria remains one of the biggest killers of children and pregnant women in the developing world and much of the effort to combat malaria is focused on controlling mosquitoes through the use of insecticides in bednets and indoor residual spraying. Mosquitoes can evolve to overcome the way in which insecticides work and the emergence of insecticide-resistant strains of mosquitoes is an increasing problem, therefore understanding more about its genetic and biological basis is critically important. The team, led by Dr Charles Wondji, studied strains of the Anopheles funestus mosquito and identified a family of genes coding for enzymes known as cytochrome P450s, detecting two genes which were associated with resistance to pyrethroid insecticide. Dr Hilary Ranson, also of the Vector Group and an author of the study, explained that these same genes were also recently identified with pyrethroid resistance in the other major malaria-carrying mosquito in Africa, Anopheles gambiae: “We expected to find that different species and populations would have different groups of genes responsible but they are very similar. This is encouraging news because it means that work to overcome resistance in one species is likely to be effective against the other.” Furthermore, provided these genetic markers identified in laboratory populations of mosquitoes are equally predictive in the field – something currently being tested by Dr Wondji – this will overcome a major blocking point in the evaluation of wild mosquito populations. Routine use of these molecular markers for resistance will provide early warning of future control problems due to insecticide resistance and should greatly enhance the ability to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of resistance on malaria control. 250 million THE NUMBER OF MALARIA CASES THAT EMERGE EACH YEAR PROFESSOR MIKE LEHANE BSc PhD HEAD OF THE VECTOR GROUP PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR ENTOMOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY The laboratory based studies of Mike’s research group are centred primarily on investigations of vector parasite interactions with a large scale gene discovery programme. This work is done in collaboration with the University of Yale, US and the University of Victoria, Canada. Mike’s team are also undertaking studies on sandfly interactions. LSTM ANNUAL REPORT 29
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT RESEARCHING AND 2008/
Page 3 and 4: CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD “LSTM is at
Page 5 and 6: TREASURER’S REPORT Research Grant
Page 7 and 8: 08. Miss Catherine Jones, BA, ACIS.
Page 9 and 10: PROFESSOR BERNARD BRABIN MB ChB MSc
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Page 13 and 14: The team from Shanghai Academy for
Page 15 and 16: DISEASE CONTROL STRATEGY GROUP CENT
Page 17 and 18: www.cntd.org both international and
Page 19 and 20: PROFESSOR PAUL GARNER MBBS DRCOG MD
Page 21 and 22: LSTM is leading an eighteen month p
Page 23 and 24: MOLECULAR & BIOCHEMICAL PARASITOLOG
Page 25 and 26: Rural farming increases risk of sna
Page 27: TROPICAL DRUG DISCOVERY GROUP PROF
Page 31 and 32: EDUCATION & TRAINING LSTM’s educa
Page 33 and 34: actually arrives and the admissions
Page 35 and 36: DIPLOMA IN HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
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Page 39 and 40: LSTM BUSINESS OFFICE LSTM is increa
Page 41 and 42: THE INNOVATIVE VECTOR CONTROL CONSO
Page 43 and 44: OFFICERS 2008/09 PATRON Her Royal H
Page 45 and 46: European & Developing Countries Cli
Page 47 and 48: STUDENT PROFILES Pamela Godia, PhD
Page 49 and 50: RETIREMENTS Dave Haran DAVE HARAN D
Page 51 and 52: IMAGE CREDITS Professor Mark Taylor

Annual Report 2008 - 2009 - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

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