Photo: Dr Dean Goodman presenting at Malaria in Melbourne Conference 2023 in the opening Plenary session.
This October, the Doherty Institute hosted the biannual ‘Malaria in Melbourne’ conference. Despite Melbourne not being an endemic region for malaria, the city is a global hub for scientific research focused on alleviating the impact of this disease. This year, the event was attended by 156 individuals over two days, and included 43 oral presentations, primarily delivered by students and early/mid-career researchers. Dr. Dean Goodman, representing the School of Biosciences at the University of Melbourne, set the tone with the opening plenary, presenting novel strategies targeting the malaria parasite within mosquitoes.
The conference presentations covered multiple topics, ranging from the mechanism of action of common antimalarial drugs to the characteristics of antibody responses which provide protection against the malaria parasite. Additional work presented included, studies on the economic toll of malaria in Malaysia and the correlation between malaria and anaemia in pregnant women in Papua New Guinea. Updates on the search for novel anti-malarial drugs, alongside promising drug candidates, and innovative techniques for identifying high-risk individuals, were also communicated.
Morning and afternoon tea was filled with discussions, while the lunchtime sessions provided an opportunity for attendees to read the research posters and engage in one-on-one discussions with their respective authors. The Malaria in Melbourne meeting in 2023 had been much anticipated as it is the first time the meeting has been held face-to-face since 2019. The event successfully united researchers from various institutes, including Burnet, Doherty, Bio21, WEHI, as well as the Universities of Melbourne, Deakin, RMIT, and Monash, with a handful of participants from other states. Overall, the meeting included a comprehensive overview of malaria research in the city and provided a great opportunity for new collaborations to begin.
Photo: Malaria in Melbourne award recipents of 2023.
Congratulations to the poster and presenter awards for 2023.
- Alessia Hysa – Best Student Poster Prize
- Katelyn Stanhope – Best ECR Poster Prize
- Sarah Cassidy-Seyoum – Best Student 5-minute talk
- Sarah Farrell – Best ECR 5-minute talk
- Sophie Collier – Best Student 15-minute talk
- Niall Geoghegan – Best ECR 15-minute talk