![david francotte david francotte](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ea/98/6f/ea986f6af07d5ec4cff9d4d00e4dcf63.jpg)
Seventeen compounds remained in the running.Īn evaluation of the remaining compounds' toxicity and pharmacokinetic profiles provided additional information to evaluate their potential drug candidates. Subsequent screens weeded out those with little activity against multi-drug resistant parasites and those toxic for mammalian cells. The first screen returned a set of 275 compounds with anti-malarial activity. Scientists at Novartis, which had compiled a library of 12,000 purified natural products, then offered their library for the screen. The Winzeler lab at GNF then developed a high-throughput screen to look for compounds active against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Noting that serendipity and observation played a role in all previous breakthrough antimalarials (for example, the drug artemisinin was derived from an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine), the team decided to pursue cell-based screening. The approach was not yielding many interesting compounds, so Winzeler and her collaborators at GNF decided to take a different tack. The impetus for the new study began in the Scripps Research Winzeler laboratory about seven years ago when Winzeler received funding from the Keck Foundation to develop new antimalarial drugs by pursuing target-based drug discovery methods (designing a drug based on known molecular interactions). Keck Foundation, as well as funding from government agencies in the United States (the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Singapore (Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR)). In addition to in-kind contributions by the pharmaceutical company Novartis (including its decade-old Novartis Malaria Initiatives) and the scientific expertise of scientists in academic laboratories around the world, the research was made possible by the support of the nonprofit organizations Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Wellcome Trust, and the W.
![david francotte david francotte](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/balloon-recycling-symbol-7534378.jpg)
The current study is the result of one such partnership. To help surmount this barrier, concerned individuals have formed public-private partnerships to help spur research on much-needed treatments. While some 40 percent of the world's population lives in malaria-infected areas, little economic incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments exists, since malaria-infected areas correspond with the some of the world's most impoverished nations. The need for new treatments is made more urgent by the spread of drug-resistance to current medications. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008 there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths - mostly among children living in Africa. The disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites, transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes.ĭespite a century of effort to globally control malaria, the disease remains endemic in many parts of the world. Malaria is a nasty and often fatal disease, which may lead to kidney failure, seizures, permanent neurological damage, coma, and death. "It has a lot of encouraging features as a drug candidate, including an attractive safety profile and potential treatment in a single oral dose." "We're very excited by the new compound," said Elizabeth Winzeler, a Scripps Research associate professor and member of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) who led the research with Thierry Diagana of the Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases.
![david francotte david francotte](http://andersruff.com/custom-printable-parties/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/VAL_9552.jpg)
The research was published on September 3, 2010, in the journal Science.