Recent Advances by Women Scientists Tackling some of the Biggest Challenges of Malaria
Author: Varijakshi Gutthedhar
Date: 14. July 2026
Although significant progress has been made over the past two decades, malaria continues to be a major threat to global public health, with an estimated 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths reported globally in 2024, according to the WHO World Malaria Report 2025. Advancements towards elimination are increasingly challenged by antimalarial drug resistance, insecticide resistance, climate- and environment-driven changes in malaria transmission. Women scientists are contributing to efforts to overcome these challenges through research ranging from drug discovery and genomic surveillance to climate-informed malaria prediction and vaccine and immunology research. This issue highlights recent advances in these fields and the women researchers driving them.
Climate Change and Future of Malaria
Can climate science help us stay one step ahead of malaria?
1. Projecting Africa’s Future Malaria Risk
Featured Scientist: Tasmin L. Symons
Using 25 years of data on malaria, climate, control interventions, socioeconomic conditions, and extreme weather events across Africa, the researchers developed a high-resolution modelling framework to project the impact of climate change on malaria burden through 2050. The analysis estimates that, under current control efforts, climate change could contribute to an additional 123 million malaria cases and more than 500,000 deaths, with extreme weather events emerging as the greatest driver of future risk. These findings provide critical evidence for designing climate-resilient malaria control strategies, strengthening surveillance, and improving emergency preparedness across Africa.
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2. Why Humidity Matters for Malaria Transmission
Featured Scientist: Courtney C Murdock
For decades, temperature has been the cornerstone of malaria risk prediction. However, researchers have shown that relative humidity can be just as important in determining where malaria mosquitoes survive and thrive. Through laboratory experiments and population growth modelling, they found that humidity strongly influences the development, survival, and population growth of Anopheles stephensi, an invasive malaria vector. Their findings demonstrate that incorporating humidity alongside temperature produces more realistic predictions of future malaria risk, providing a stronger scientific foundation for climate-informed surveillance and vector control.
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3. Climate-Informed Malaria Risk Mapping in Brazil
Featured Scientist: Tatiane C M Sousa
As climate change continues to reshape malaria transmission, anticipating where future outbreaks are most likely to occur is becoming increasingly important. To support this effort, researchers developed AdaptaBrasil, an innovative platform that combines climate projections with epidemiological, environmental, and socioeconomic data to assess future Plasmodium vivax malaria risk across Brazil. Their analysis suggests that rising temperatures, together with deforestation, mining, population mobility, and limited healthcare access, could expand malaria risk beyond the Amazon by 2050. By translating complex data into practical decision-support, the platform enables policymakers to better target surveillance, strengthen preparedness, and build climate-resilient malaria control programmes.
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4. Using AI to Forecast Malaria Outbreaks
Featured Scientist: Mengxin Pan
Timely prediction of malaria outbreaks can give health systems a crucial advantage in preventing disease transmission. To improve long-term forecasting, researchers developed a machine learning-based approach that identifies a dynamic sea surface temperature (SST) index linked to malaria transmission in the Peruvian Amazon. The new index predicted malaria outbreaks more than three months in advance, outperforming the commonly used El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indicator. By revealing how changes in ocean temperatures influence local climate conditions that favour malaria transmission, this research provides a powerful early-warning tool to strengthen surveillance, preparedness, and climate-informed malaria control.
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Drug Discovery and Therapeutic Innovation
What does it take to outsmart a parasite that keeps evolving?
1. A Multi-Stage Weapon Against Malaria
Featured Scientist: Jane Xu Kelly
Treating malaria effectively requires medicines that can target the parasite throughout its complex life cycle. Researchers have identified a novel acridone-based antimalarial that shows potent activity against Plasmodium parasites in the blood, liver, and mosquito stages. In addition to its broad-spectrum activity, the lead compound demonstrated strong oral efficacy, a favourable safety profile, and worked synergistically with tafenoquine. Importantly, it acts through a distinct mechanism from existing antimalarial drugs, offering a promising strategy to combat drug resistance. This multi-stage candidate could pave the way for future medicines capable of treating infection, preventing relapse, and interrupting malaria transmission.
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2. A Promising Drug Reaches Human Trials
Featured Scientist: Bridget Barber
Bringing a new antimalarial medicine from the laboratory into human studies is a major step towards improving malaria treatment. Researchers recently evaluated MMV367, a promising first-in-class antimalarial, in healthy volunteers with experimentally induced Plasmodium falciparum malaria. A single oral dose was well tolerated and rapidly cleared blood-stage parasites, with parasite-killing rates comparable to current artemisinin-based therapies. Importantly, the drug acts through a different biological pathway and showed no early evidence of resistance, highlighting its potential as a next-generation treatment candidate to help tackle the growing challenge of antimalarial drug resistance.
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3. Repurposing an Old Drug for Malaria
Featured Scientist: Brittany A Riggle
Finding new ways to improve survival from cerebral malaria is just as important as developing new antimalarial drugs. Researchers evaluated 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (DON), a potential adjunctive therapy, in healthy Malawian adults and adults with uncomplicated malaria. The treatment was generally well tolerated, with only mild, short-lived side effects at lower doses, while malaria infection had minimal impact on the drug’s behaviour in the body. These findings provide an important foundation for advancing DON into clinical trials in children with cerebral malaria, bringing researchers one step closer to developing therapies that could improve outcomes beyond parasite clearance alone.
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4. One Scaffold, Multiple Parasite Targets
Featured Scientists: Mahta Mansouri; Sheena McGowan
Researchers developed a novel dual-target drug scaffold that simultaneously inhibits two essential malaria enzymes, PfA-M1 and PfA-M17, disrupting parasite survival through a new mechanism of action. The lead compounds showed potent activity against multiple Plasmodium species, including P. falciparum and P. vivax, while remaining effective against multidrug-resistant parasite strains. They also reduced parasite levels in infected mice, highlighting their promise as next-generation antimalarial candidates. By targeting two critical enzymes at once, this approach could offer a valuable strategy for developing treatments that remain effective against emerging drug-resistant malaria parasites.
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5. Blocking Malaria Through Plasmepsin X
Featured Scientist: Jing Hong
A newly identified 2-piperazino-pyrimidine antimalarial compound (FPSA) offers a promising new way to stop malaria parasites from spreading by blocking plasmepsin X (PMX), a key parasite enzyme required for mature parasites to escape infected red blood cells and invade new ones. By interrupting this critical step, FPSA traps the parasites inside the cells, preventing the infection cycle from continuing. The study also identified a new chemical scaffold for targeting PMX, broadening the range of potential antimalarial drug candidates. With drug resistance continuing to threaten current treatments, this discovery provides an important foundation for developing next-generation therapies that act through a precise and previously underexplored mechanism.
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Building the Next Generation of Malaria Vaccines
Can new vaccine strategies deliver broader and longer-lasting protection?
1. Multi-Antigen Vaccine Blocks Malaria Transmission
Featured Scientists: Zeinab Pourhashem; Sedigheh Zakeri
Researchers developed a multi-antigen transmission-blocking malaria vaccine that simultaneously targets the malaria parasite and its mosquito vector using three complementary antigens – APN-1, CelTOS, and cd-HAP. The vaccine generated strong, long-lasting antibody and Th1-biased immune responses without compromising the effectiveness of individual antigens. In laboratory mosquito feeding assays, vaccinated sera reduced parasite development in Anopheles stephensi, achieving 91% transmission-reducing activity and 73% transmission-blocking activity. By targeting multiple stages of the parasite’s life cycle, this innovative vaccine strategy offers a promising approach to reducing malaria transmission and supporting future elimination efforts.
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2. Dual-Antigen Virus-Like Particle Vaccine
Featured Scientist: Gulbuse Turan
Researchers developed a bivalent virus-like particle (VLP) malaria vaccine that combines the well-known circumsporozoite protein (CSP) with SPECT-1, a conserved protein essential for parasite movement into the liver. The vaccine generated strong antibody responses against both antigens and provided protection in mice comparable to the licensed R21 malaria vaccine. Among the adjuvants tested, Matrix-M produced the most robust immune responses. These findings highlight the potential of multi-antigen VLP vaccines to strengthen pre-erythrocytic immunity and support the development of more durable next-generation malaria vaccines.
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3. Human Challenge Trial Refines Vaccine Evaluation
Featured Scientist: Melissa C Kapulu
Researchers found that the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine provided complete protection against malaria parasites introduced through the skin, the natural route of infection following a mosquito bite. However, the same vaccine did not protect against parasites delivered directly into the bloodstream. The findings suggest that vaccine performance depends on how parasites enter the body and may explain why protection sometimes appears inconsistent in clinical studies. This work provides important insights for improving malaria vaccine evaluation and could help refine future clinical trials and strategies to develop vaccines with stronger and longer-lasting protection.
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4. Universal T-Cell Targets Discovered for Malaria Vaccines
Featured Scientists: Camila R R Barbosa; Luna B. de Lacerda; Caroline Junqueira
Researchers identified a new set of CD8⁺ T cell antigens that are conserved across multiple malaria parasite species and life stages, opening the door to the development of a universal malaria vaccine. Using advanced immunopeptidomics, the team discovered parasite proteins naturally presented to human immune cells during infection and showed that these antigens triggered strong T cell responses in individuals infected with both P. vivax and P. falciparum. Several of the identified antigens also generated protective immunity in animal models, highlighting their potential as next-generation vaccine targets capable of providing broad, long-lasting protection against malaria.
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5. mRNA Technology Overcomes a Key Vaccine Barrier
Featured Scientists: Mariah Hassert; Lisa L Drewry
Repeated malaria infections can reduce the effectiveness of whole-sporozoite malaria vaccines, particularly in endemic regions. Researchers identified haemozoin – a pigment left behind after malaria infection – as a key factor that weakens protective CD8⁺ T cell responses by disrupting immune cell function. To overcome this challenge, they developed an mRNA vaccine carrying multiple malaria T-cell targets, which successfully restored protective immune responses in previously infected mice. When combined with a whole-sporozoite vaccine, the approach further enhanced long-lasting liver-resident immune cells, highlighting a promising strategy for improving malaria vaccine effectiveness in populations with prior malaria exposure.
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Genomics Against Drug Resistance
How is genomic sequencing reshaping malaria surveillance and drug resistance monitoring?
1. Bringing Real-Time Genomic Surveillance to Africa
Featured Scientists: Mulenga Mwenda; Karolina Mosler
Researchers developed a rapid, low-cost nanopore sequencing platform that enables local laboratories to monitor P. falciparum genetic changes without relying on centralized sequencing facilities. The system simultaneously tracks key antimalarial drug resistance genes, hrp2/hrp3 deletions that can cause rapid diagnostic test failure, and genetic changes in vaccine target genes. Successfully deployed across six African countries, the platform generated genomic data from more than 1,000 field samples within a year. By making high-quality genomic surveillance faster, more affordable, and locally accessible, this approach strengthens countries’ ability to detect emerging resistance early and guide timely malaria control decisions.
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2. Mapping How Malaria Parasites Adapt Across the World
Featured Scientist: Nina Billows
By analysing more than 17,500 malaria parasite genomes from 39 countries, researchers uncovered how P. falciparum is evolving in different parts of the world. The analysis revealed distinct regional patterns of genetic adaptation, including known drug-resistance mutations as well as new genetic changes that could contribute to future resistance. It also highlighted areas where parasites are beginning to evolve along different evolutionary pathways, providing an early warning of emerging threats. These insights strengthen global genomic surveillance and will help malaria programmes detect resistance sooner, tailor interventions to local parasite populations, and make more informed treatment decisions.
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3. New Genetic Clues to Quinine Resistance
Featured Scientist: Mariko Kanai
Researchers uncovered why quinine resistance in P. falciparum has remained difficult to predict. Instead of being driven by a single mutation, resistance was shown to arise through the combined effects of three genes – Pfcrt, dmt1, and ftsh1. The team also demonstrated how two of these genes transport quinine within the parasite, revealing new biological mechanisms behind reduced drug susceptibility. These newly identified genetic markers provide a stronger foundation for monitoring quinine resistance and could help malaria programmes detect emerging resistance early if quinine use increases in the future.
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4. A New Tool for Detecting Hidden Drug Resistance
Featured Scientist: Xue Li
As malaria cases decline, parasite genomes can reveal whether elimination efforts are truly working. By analysing thousands of parasite samples collected over several years in Myanmar, researchers showed that intensive control measures sharply reduced parasite diversity and interrupted local transmission. The remaining parasite populations became increasingly isolated, making it easier to identify persistent transmission pockets and monitor resistant strains. These findings highlight how genomic surveillance can provide an early warning system during malaria elimination, helping programmes refine interventions and prevent the resurgence of drug-resistant parasites.
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5. Genetic Footprints of Elimination
Featured Scientists: Yanka E A R Salazar; Tais N de Sousa
Drug-resistant malaria doesn’t appear overnight, it often begins as a small population of parasites hidden within an infection. Researchers developed MalDeepSeq, a high-resolution sequencing platform that can uncover these low-frequency resistant parasites long before they become dominant. Covering 48 resistance-associated genes, the platform works with both whole blood and dried blood spot samples, making it practical for field surveillance. By enabling earlier detection of emerging resistance, MalDeepSeq gives malaria control programmes a valuable opportunity to act before resistant parasites spread through communities.
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