UP ISMC: Ten years of fighting malaria in a transdisciplinary way

Posted on April 30, 2021

Malaria is still a major public health concern and scientists constantly endeavour to develop new tools and control and management strategies to eliminate the disease. Malaria as a research focus at the University of Pretoria (UP) started with two UP professors discussing malaria challenges and malaria research occurring at the university. The researchers, Prof Tiaan de Jager (an environmental health specialist at the School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) in the Faculty of Health Sciences (HS)) and Prof Walter Focke (a chemical engineer from the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT)), would appear to have nothing in common. Ten years and numerous established interfaculty collaborations later, that original discussion had resulted in a research entity that gives new meaning to malaria control by looking at the challenge through a holistic and innovative lens. 

The University of Pretoria Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control (UP ISMC) was strategically established as a transdisciplinary platform to promote innovative, collaborative research within the UP to generate new knowledge and support new activities on safe and sustainable malaria control and management strategies in Africa. Hosted in the SHSPH, the entity was approved by the UP Senate as a Research Centre (the UP Centre for Sustainable Malaria Control – UP CSMC) and a Faculty Research Theme (FRT) on 12 May 2011 and 17 May 2011 respectively. Five years after its inception, on 2 June 2016, the Centre became an Institute – the UP ISMC.

The UP ISMC transcends individual faculties. Researchers with their postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows, from various departments in all nine of the UP faculties and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), are associated with the Institute. Each researcher has his/her own area of expertise, and all aspects of the disease – the human host and its environment, mosquito vector and the malaria parasite – are addressed in some capacity. The Institute’s research is grouped into three research clusters namely the human health, parasite control and vector control clusters, with research occurring across the clusters.

Transdisciplinary collaboration is not only limited to researchers within the UP. Strong links exist between the UP ISMC and its partners and collaborators from other tertiary and research institutions both nationally and internationally. The Institute is aligned with the South African government’s Strategic Plan to eliminate the disease and many of the researchers work closely with the provincial malaria control programmes in the country. Research varies from molecular approaches, transmission-blocking and drug discovery to new and novel approaches to vector control, modelling, climate change and health promotion. A paper published in Malaria Journal in 2012 explains the unique approach of the UP ISMC towards malaria control, whilst a case study on the Institute’s ‘transdisciplinarity in action’ was published in UP’s 2019 Sustainable Development Report.

As testimony to the UP ISMC’s credibility as a notable malaria research entity, the Institute was awarded a Department of Science & Innovation / National Research Foundation South African Research Chair Initiative (DSI/NRF SARChI) Chair on Sustainable Malaria Control on 12 October 2012. The Tier II Chair was updated to a Tier I in 2017. On 21 October 2014, the UP ISMC was also awarded South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC) Collaborating Centre for Malaria Research status. Furthermore the Institute hosts a DSI/NRF Community of Practice (CoP) in Evaluating Malaria Control Interventions established in 2017, and led by Professor Lyn-Marie Birkholtz in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, which draws on the expertise of six SARChI Chairs from four top research-intensive universities in South Africa.

A critical component of a holistic approach to malaria prevention and management is the engagement with affected populations to ensure that they are part of the decision making and sustainability of successful interventions. The Institute has strong community ties in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, where local women have been trained to assist in collecting data, and in communicating all aspects of the malaria research that takes place in the region to the local community. The UP ISMC team, as led by its Director Prof de Jager, was crowned the winner of the 2017/ 2018, NSTF–South 32 Award in the category: “Communication for outreach and creating awareness of SET and innovation by a team or individual over the past five years”. Known as the Oscars of Science and Innovation, this award highlights the Institute’s commitment to raising awareness about the disease.

To celebrate the UP ISMC’s ten years of existence, the Institute will participate in a couple of virtual events throughout the year, which already started with some academic discussions as part of the commemoration of World Malaria Day (observed annually on 25 April). A big transdisciplinary-themed event is being planned towards the end of the year (dependent on Covid). Event information will be shared on the Institute’s webpage www.malaria.up.ac.za and social media platforms.

- Author Dr Taneshka Kruger

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