The jury is still out on this question, but a new drug target has raised the hopes of malaria researchers that the disease can be treated more effectively in the future. The new compound, ELQ-300, was developed by a team of scientists at Portland’s Veteran Affairs Medical Center led by Michael Riscoe that included Reed visiting professor Aaron Nilsen and Kip Guy, ’89.
The first paper describing ELQ-300 has just appeared in Science Translational Medicine (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005029) with Aaron as the lead author, and popular accounts have appeared this week in Chemistry & Engineering News (2013 March 25, p. 35) and on the front page of the Oregonian (2013 March 21).
But stay tuned. Aaron tells me that Galen Miley ’13, his thesis student, has prepared a compound that is even more effective than ELQ-300.
6/11/2013 update: Randie Dalziel just told me about this recent article: Experimental malaria drug may be a hot prospect | Body & Brain | Science News, April 20, 2013, vol. 183 #8.