The Synaptic Leap

Welcome one and all.  ‘They’ call me Saj (M. Saj Sajid) and I have joined The Synaptic Leap to take over the responsible task of Malaria Community Leader from our previous overseer, Marc A. Marti-Renom.  Currently, I co-direct the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Core of the Sandler Center for Basic Research in Parasitic Diseases, at the University of California San Francisco.  I am involved in a number of related projects looking at proteases as drug targets in parasitic organisms, and have a particular interest in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium.

What's the Problem with Malaria?

Even with huge advances in biomedical science, malaria eradication has eluded mankind. (See WHO and CDC sites for malaria background).  This lack of effective control, the appearance of drug resistant strains of malaria in the field along with the enormous mortality and socioeconomic loss have been the driving forces to search for novel malariacides and anti-malaria immunotherapies.  Worldwide, malaria prevalence is 300-500 million cases annually.  This preventable scourge causes 1-2 million deaths per year, mainly confined to Africa and to children less than 5 years of age; representing 10% of all deaths in Africa and 30 to 50% of all hospital admissions.  To put this number into perspective, the children in Africa that die every day due to infection with malaria would fill 7 Jumbo jets and a moderate infection consumes an equivalent amount of protein as there is in a burger (remember this the next you grab some fast food!).  These numbers clearly illustrate the pressing need for effective control, cure and prophylaxis for malaria. (See the excellent overview on the economic loss due to malaria by Gallup and Sach).  In addition to children, high-risk groups include pregnant women and non-immune travelers such the armed forces, labourers and refugees.  Once infected, the individual becomes feverish and drowsy, vomiting and shivering may also occur, accompanied by anemia.  There is also an increased susceptibility to infection by other diseases, and malaria has been linked with impaired cognitive development in children and therefore educational achievement.  Pregnant women are particularly susceptible to severe malaria and are more likely to deliver underweight babies.  There is a strong correlation between malaria prevalence and poverty, and poor countries are further burdened by the inability of infected individuals to work and care for their families.  For a long time malaria has been a neglected disease of developing countries, however, there has been a recent global drive to eliminate this devastating disease.

Who's Involved Globally and How Does TSL Fit In? 

Although some pharmaceutical companies have an interest in malaria (for example GSK and Novartis), the vast majority of malaria research is carried out in hundreds of academic and clinical labs worldwide.  Malaria research has had substantial increases in funding over the years (for example the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Fund), and even large multinational coalitions have also been formed to ‘Roll Back Malaria’.  Nonetheless, there is still a lack of novel anti-malaria immuno and chemotherapies on the market, mainly due to the huge expense of taking a potential drug through the chemotherapy validation process.  The vast chasm that exists between academic target validation, lead compound optimization and clinical trials has been tackled by a number of non-profit based organizations such as MMV and One World Health.  Moreover, the enormous global expertise in malaria that has accumulated over the years is spread into discrete laboratories, where valuable information is not easily available to the malaria community.  However, this collective knowledge can now be usefully disseminated by tapping into an Open Source based global malaria resource - and here is where the TSL comes in.

My Goal at The Synaptic Leap

I hope to encourage as many malariologists (and general scientists) to visit TSL in the hope that the malaria community will start to perceive TSL as an invaluable resource in all aspects of malaria research – whether it be issues relating to basic wet lab science, informatics, epidemiology or novel drug target selection and validation.  For TSL to be truly ‘usable’ it will need a small amount of input by many, and I envisage that once we have gathered momentum, the TSL will grow in leaps and bounds.  I encourage you all to login (this will only take a few minutes) and surf TSL; start to think of TSL as a portal to hundreds of scientists globally that all have a common interest, the eradication of malaria.  Tell your colleagues and friends (and your friend’s friends!) about the TSL.  Remember, as the number of TSL users increases so will the collective power of this Open Source Collaboration.

Get Involved with an Open Research Project 

Go to our current projects page for a list of projects in process.  From there, you may learn more about these projects and learn how you can participate.  Or, you may "add a child page" (see the link at the bottom) to initiate and describe your own open research project for malaria.

If you're still in the brainstorming phase of starting a project, write a blog article to discuss your ideas with other scientists around the world also studying malaria. Working together, we can direct the research towards the most promising ideas.

You can also help shape and direct other malaria research ideas by reading and commenting on other community posts. 

Keep Up To Date with The Latest Malaria Information

To assist you with your malaria research we have pulled together a  research tools page for malaria as well as an RSS news feeds for malaria.  If you know of a useful tool that we don't have on the list, add a comment for others to see.

And Finally Something to Keep in Mind!

In the time it has taken you to read this page, 5 to 6  children have died of malaria.