University of Florida Receives $1.5 Million for Malaria Research
University of Florida Receives $1.5 Million for Malaria Research
The University of Florida in Gainesville has announced a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop modeling tools for malaria elimination.
David L. Smith, an associate director of disease ecology at UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute and an associate professor in the school's zoology department, will head up the effort, which is part of the Malaria Atlas Project to develop evidence-based high-spatial-resolution maps of malaria endemicity. The modeling tools will help fill gaps in malaria theory and increase understanding of transmission of the disease.
"To plan, we need to understand how malaria parasites move around in humans, and we also need to understand the interplay between economic and ecological aspects of malaria elimination," said Smith. "These are difficult questions to answer, but we hope to provide some quantitative advice to help guide countries as they make strategic decisions about malaria elimination."
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