Louise Kelly-Hope of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom and Thomas Unnasch of the University of South Florida in the U.S., along with their research teams, will develop high resolution tools to map the locations and chart the habitats of vectors of several parasitic worm infections to promote safer and more effective control strategies. Some of the drugs that can successfully treat parasite infections become harmful in the presence of other parasites, but predicting where these co-infections are most likely to occur is difficult. Using the fly vectors for the parasitic nematode Loa loa, they will develop a remote sensing model for predicting its presence by identifying environmental factors that the flies favor using satellite technology and geographic information systems, and validate the model by performing ground-based studies in several African countries.

Ron Frezieres of the California Family Health Council in the U.S. along with Max Abadi of Unique International in Colombia and I.MAXX Inc. in the U.S. are developing a stronger and thinner male condom made of polyethylene to promote condom use. Polyethylene is a non-toxic and hypoallergenic material that wraps and clings rather than squeezes, thereby enhancing sensation and enabling easier application. In Phase I, in collaboration with the polyethylene condom inventor/manufacturer in Colombia, the team optimized the material, tested compatibility with different lubricants, designed discreet packaging, and manufactured two prototypes with either a pull-tab applicator or a flanged base.These were compared with traditional latex condoms for performance and usability by 34 couples that overall preferred the pull-tab condom. In Phase II, they will further optimize the condom by improving the lubrication and application, and develop more economical packaging for developing countries. They will also perform a larger clinical study of the modified product using 300 couples.

David Sands of Montana State University in the U.S. will work with Kenyan women farmers to evaluate the performance of a biological control method for eliminating the parasitic weed Striga (witchweed), which can cause up to 80% loss of maize, millet, and sorghum yield in smallholder African farms. Striga is a problem in 43 African countries, and manual weeding is highly time- and labor-intensive. They have previously developed a virulent fungal strain to inhibit weed growth, and shown that it can be easily transported on toothpicks for safe and effective distribution. Preliminary field-tests in one village showed that this fungus could effectively control Striga, and in some instances double crop yield. Sands will expand this testing phase to women maize farmers in 50 villages and evaluate crop yield, weed reduction, and farmer satisfaction over 12 months.

Paula Ribeiro of McGill University in Canada will develop a simple diagnostic test for schistosomiasis, which is caused by parasitic worms, based on microRNAs. Current diagnostics suffer from lack of sensitivity or an inability to distinguish current from past infections. They will evaluate parasite microRNAs contained within small extracellular vesicles (exosomes) as infection biomarkers by first isolating and sequencing them from infected mice. Using this information, they will develop a simple, inexpensive test to amplify the microRNAs from human blood using sera from infected patients in West Africa and Egypt. Their approach could ultimately be used to distinguish between different stages of infection and be broadened to other helminth infections.