David Sullivan
Zambia
School of Medicine, MD program
Despite numerous scientific discoveries to detect and treat malaria, advances must be tested in the field under real-world conditions. During this project, I will characterize the kinetics of a PCR-based urine and saliva malaria infection assay. Specifically, I will attempt to correlate changes in the level of malaria parasite DNA or RNA in urine and saliva with patient parasitemia and clinical parameters. Another objective will be to further improve the sensitivity and specificity of the assay by varying DNA extraction and PCR protocols. On a broader level, this project will expose me to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of malaria patients in a developing world setting.
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