R_D_Pipeline_for_SPOTMalaria. R_D_Pipeline_for_SPOTMalaria

Malaria control and elimination programmes often face practical obstacles that can be tackled more effectively with information about the parasite population. The study of the complete sequence of genetic information contained within each parasite has the great potential for providing insights into some of these obstacles, such as the emergence and spread of drug resistance. The SPOTMalaria project aims to provide answers at two different levels. By inspecting the presence of drug resistance markers in parasite samples, this information can be immediately reported back to the partners, providing information on the presence of mutations that make the parasites resistant to antimalarial drugs such as artemisinin or its ACT partner drugs. This allows our partners to rapidly detect changes in drug efficacy and to respond to these changes. At a different level, by conducting more detailed genetic analysis, combining data from neighbouring locations and during time, SPOTMalaria project will provide new insights on how parasites are evolving in response to natural changes and human intervention. In SPOTMalaria project, analysis of parasite DNA from a large number of dried blood samples (DBS) samples collected across different locations in Africa and Asia will be performed. The R&D Pipeline for SPOTMalaria project is being set up to support research and development for the production phase of SPOTMalaria project. Received DBS samples will be punched for 96 well plates and lysed DNA samples submitted for DNA extraction and quantification using robotics. Samples will be then processed for sWGA amplification by our team and genotyping will be performed to evaluate performance of the sWGA process. Samples will then be whole genome sequenced. The R&D Pipeline for SPOTMalaria will serve to test and improve the different methodologies and established protocols will be transferred for production phase of SPOTMalaria project. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/