Dr Eva Baldrich, head of the Diagnostic Nanotools (DINA) group at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) has been awarded one of the grants given by the sixth CaixaResearch call for research in health, promoted by the 'la Caixa' Foundation. A total of €989,940.75 will go towards the creation and implementation of a compact, inexpensive and easy-to-handle device that will enable mass malaria detection tests to be carried out in developing regions. This device could be decisive in diagnosing the infection in the first phase, which would make it possible to implement an appropriate initial treatment for each patient and thus make a significant contribution to eradicating the disease.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites of the Plasmodium genus, transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. Every year it causes more than 200 million new infections and the death of half a million people worldwide, 70% of whom are children under the age of five. It is one of the diseases associated with poverty and most cases occur in low-income countries.  Current diagnostic methods are based on time-consuming and laborious techniques, which have to be carried out in specialised laboratories and which, in some cases, are unable to identify patients with a low parasite load.

The World Health Organisation has launched an ambitious plan to eradicate malaria that requires mass screening of the population in the regions where it is endemic in order to apply early and effective treatment. This requires rapid, quantitative and reliable diagnostic tools that are capable of detecting asymptomatic patients or patients with few parasites in their blood (low parasite load), and that at the same time allow the precise identification of the species of Plasmodium causing the infection, a crucial point in order to administer the appropriate treatment and prevent the parasite from generating a resistance to drugs.

33 biomedicine and health research projects

A total of 33 projects have been selected as part of the CaixaResearch call for proposals for Health Research 2023, which aims to promote excellent biomedical research with a major social impact in basic, clinical and translational research.

The call, to which 493 proposals have been submitted this year, is particularly aimed at tackling health challenges, such as infectious diseases (8 projects have been selected), neurosciences (7), cardiovascular and related metabolic diseases (7) and oncology (6). Furthermore, 5 other initiatives that will develop enabling technologies in one of these fields have received awards.

At the ceremony, which took place at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum, the General Manager of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Antoni Vila Bertrán, recalled: "Scientific research is fundamental to social progress and the well-being of citizens. Science not only helps to build knowledge in society, but it is also key to improving the quality of life of the people who need it most".