Growing Plasmodium vivax in the lab to speed better treatments
Official title: Leveraging access to parasite natural diversity to identify Plasmodium vivax culture-adaptable strain.
Funded at Institut Pasteur Du Cambodge · NIH-11251974 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Working to grow Plasmodium vivax parasites in laboratory conditions to help people living where vivax malaria is common by enabling faster drug and test development.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Institut Pasteur Du Cambodge NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA) |
| Project start | December 27, 2024 |
| Project end | November 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $265,788 |
| NIH project number | 5R61AI187100-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11251974 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People with confirmed Plasmodium vivax infection seen at participating clinics in Cambodia who are willing to provide blood samples and give informed consent.
✕Less likely to help
People without vivax infection or those seeking immediate treatment benefits are unlikely to gain direct personal benefit from participating.
What this research studies
Researchers will collect fresh Plasmodium vivax samples directly from patients using mobile laboratories at bedside in endemic areas of Cambodia. They will screen hundreds of clinical isolates to find strains that are naturally able to survive and grow outside the body. The team will optimize culture conditions, including nutrient media and controlled oxygen/CO2 levels in a specially designed hypoxic chamber. They will also test using hematopoietic stem cell–derived reticulocytes as target red blood cells to support longer-term parasite growth.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could enable reliable lab models of vivax malaria that speed development of new drugs, diagnostics, and elimination strategies.
How similar studies have gone: Previous efforts have achieved short-term growth of P. vivax in the lab but long-term, reproducible culture-adaptable strains remain largely unestablished, so this approach builds on partial success but addresses a known gap.
Where this research is happening
-
Institut Pasteur Du Cambodge
Phnom Penh, Cambodia Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Popovici, Jean — Institut Pasteur Du Cambodge
- Study coordinator: Popovici, Jean
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.