Mariateresa de Cesare, Mulenga Mwenda, Anna E Jeffreys, Jacob Chirwa, Chris Drakeley, Kammerle Schneider, Brenda Mambwe, Karolina Glanz, Christina Ntalla, Manuela Carrasquilla, Silvia Portugal, Robert J Verity, Jeffrey A Bailey, Isaac Ghinai, George B Busby, Busiku Hamainza, Moonga Hawela, Daniel J Bridges, Jason A Hendry
Genomic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum malaria can provide policy-relevant information about antimalarial drug resistance, diagnostic test failure, and the evolution of vaccine targets. Yet the large and low complexity genome of P. falciparum complicates the development of genomic methods, while resource constraints in malaria endemic regions can limit their deployment. Here, we demonstrate an approach for targeted nanopore sequencing of P. falciparum from dried blood spots (DBS) that enables cost-effective genomic surveillance of malaria in low-resource settings...
February 15, 2024: Nature Communications