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Posted 1/22/98
Children around the world suffering from malaria now have a little more hope for alleviating this illness, which kills more than one million children per year worldwide.
James Kazura, professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Nicholas J. Schork, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and genetics, have received a grant that will assist in research aimed at examining malaria in children ages 3 to 4 in developing countries.
Project support comes through a $300,000, three-year award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is an independent, private foundation established to advance medical science by supporting research and other such endeavors.
Kazura has been conducting malaria research in Papua New Guinea for the past 15 years. Located in Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, occupies the east half of the island of New Guinea. The island is east of Indonesia and north of Australia.
Children in New Guinea are repeatedly infected with malaria by age 5. This research is examining why some children are predisposed to get this disease while others are not.
While young children are the main focus of this project, other research is also being done on pregnant women. Kazura and Schork are working with the Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research, the Swiss Tropical Institute, and the Walter and Eliza Institute in order to make this a multinational effort.
The duo will use the grant for laboratory studies and field studies in New Guinea. This award establishes credibility in genetic mapping and malaria, which paves the way for future funding, said Kazura, who is director of CWRU s Center for International Health.
"Genetic mapping allows us to identify novel genes in humans that contribute to severe disease from malaria infection," Kazura said. "Ultimately, this information leads to prevention and treatment of diseases from malaria."
This award is aimed at getting new ideas into the field of malaria research, and it demonstrates the outstanding reputation which the CWRU School of Medicine has developed in international health, he added.
The research in New Guinea is an ongoing process that continues even while Kazura is not there in person. Researchers in New Guinea communicate with Kazura via computer, and advancements are made daily. Kazura returned to New Guinea in July.
Overseas, the CWRU School of Medicine has a wide range of training relationships in many fields and has a long history of research related to international health. The Center for International Health was established to help link CWRU's numerous international health resources, its affiliated institutions, and the northern Ohio community in a multidisciplinary program of research, training, and application related to global health.
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