Anopheles stephensi mosquito
Anopheles stephensi mosquito © Rsabbatini

EU funds new malaria test with nanotech

An EU-funded research project aims to start testing a new diagnostic tool for malaria one year ahead of schedule. The pioneering smartphone-like device uses cutting-edge nanotechnology to detect not only an infection for malaria but also drug resistance from a pinprick of blood.

It is hoped the test, which takes just 15 minutes, could be deployed in developing countries from 2015 if field tests prove successful later this year, according to Nanomal project partners.

Speaking about the breakthrough, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science said: “Half the world’s population is at risk from malaria. Rapid and accurate diagnosis is essential to fight the disease, as are new vaccines, drugs and methods to control its spread.”

The Nanomal project, led by the University of London, is working with UK-based handheld diagnostics and DNA sequencing specialist, QuantuMDx Group, and teams at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The prototype device aims to provide the same quality of results as a laboratory but with a significant reduction in cost and time for them to be produced. Its hoped the breakthrough will allow doctors to prescribe personalised combinations of anti-malarial drugs to patients.

The project, which received €4m in funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme, was set up in response to increasing signs that the malaria parasite is mutating to resist the most powerful classes of anti-malaria drug combination therapies that include artemisinins as a component.

The EU has invested more than €209m in malaria research since 2002. Tackling the major health challenges facing society is a major feature of Horizon 2020.