Edwin Sutanto, our senior bioinformatician at EHI, recently attended the Genomic Epidemiology of Malaria 2024 conference on 18-20 September 2024. The conference focused on molecular epidemiology of parasites, vectors, and hosts to study malaria, and to understand the consequences that impact malaria elimination such as drug resistance, transmission dynamics, and vaccine development.
The conference covered multiple sessions: spatiotemporal genomic epidemiology of parasites and vectors; drug, diagnostic, and insecticide resistance; genomic studies of species interactions; harmonizing data standards and analysis resources for public health; transmission and genetic surveillance of malaria: new methods, analyses, and resources; vector and parasites: neglected and emerging species; and priorities for genomic epidemiology of malaria – panel discussion.
Edwin presented his work “Deconvolving genetic complexity in Plasmodium vivax infections” as a speaker in Session 5: Transmission and Genetic Surveillance of Malaria: New Methods, Analyses, and Resources. The presentation highlighted the need to perform an in-depth analysis of polyclonal infections of vivax malaria, the second most prevalent malaria present in Indonesia. The work was done in collaboration with Sarah Auburn (Menzies School of Health Research) as Scientific Advisor for EHI and Rintis Noviyanti (Pusat Riset Biologi Molekuler Eijkman, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional) to advance malaria elimination in Indonesia and globally.
