PRISM: Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance & Modeling of Malaria in Uganda
Study period: July 2017 to April 2025
Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance and Modeling of Malaria in Uganda (PRISM) is a malaria research program and represents the East African region for the International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR) network. The International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research program was created by NIAID/NIH in July 2010, and established a global network of independent research centers in malaria-endemic settings to provide knowledge, tools, and evidence-based strategies to support researchers working in a variety of settings, especially within governments and healthcare institutions. The overall strategy of the multi-project PRISM program is to apply a comprehensive and iterative approach to malaria Surveillance that will generate an evidence base to help maximize the impact of control interventions across a wide range of epidemiological settings. The program will consist of three research projects linked together in an integrated manner to maximize scientific discovery:
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- Research project 1 (Resistance project) will use samples collected over time at multiple sites to characterize the evolution of phenotypic and genotypic markers of drug and insecticide resistance and assess the impacts of these markers on malaria transmission.
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- Research project 2 (Epidemiology project) will use longitudinal samples from cohorts to characterize factors that determine whether sporozoite inoculation results in the establishment of blood stage infection and characterize factors affecting the duration, density, and clinical consequences of blood stage infections.
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- Research project 3 (Transmission project) will use cohort samples to determine factors associated with gametocyte production and development, evaluate infectivity of the human host to mosquito vectors, and characterize the human infectious reservoir.
These highly interrelated projects will be conducted in settings with varied malaria epidemiology and differing population level control intervention to provide critical information needed to optimize strategies for the control and ultimate elimination of malaria in Uganda.
