Malaria Journal club idea

To: Davis, Scholastica Iipinge, Tom Fox, Kudzai, Dr Hina Mu Ashekele, Prof Enos Kiremire, Dr Ronnie Bock, Percy, Chinsembu

Let us start a malaria journal club! I met with Professor Davis Mumbengegwi and one of his graduate students to speak about his research. It emerged from the meeting that we have common interests in understanding malaria from a variety of angles, namely the evolutionary genetic, pharmacological and anthropological perspectives. It therefore donned on me that a Malaria Journal Club would be the ideal place where researchers, students and prospective graduate students in some field related to the intersection of science and anthropology (that’s me) can learn about how the world is researching this disease.

I sent this email to you because I believe you would be willing to attend and present a paper from the primary literature in the malaria journal club. On a rotating basis, a journal club member will select a paper on malaria, invariably within his or her discipline, and distribute it electronically to the other members. Thereafter, the researcher would present a scientific talk that will present the paper and lead us in an exegesis. I am modeling this on the journal club I attended as an undergrad in the biophysics laboratory of my adviser Eva-Maria Schoetz.

Logistic wise, we can have the meetings in every two weeks in a room where we have access to a projector for a powerpoint presentation. I think UNAM should have such a venue, but how would we go about securing a space? Let us chose a day in the morning when we are able to have the meeting. I do not believe after working hours is a good idea, because the traffic is likely to delay attendance and people may feel exhausted. In addition, I have noticed that people in Namibia often leave the workplace to attend workshops in the morning, so this would not out of the ordinary.

I hope you can all participate in this endeavor so that we will find an multidisciplinary understanding into malaria, whether it be treatment-seeking behaviors of people or the unraveling of the Plasmodium’s best kept secrets at the molecular and cellular level. It is my hope that these different perspectives will yield and most edifying understanding of the problems at hand.

I volunteer myself to present the first paper on the salient finding of Plasmodium vivax malaria is infecting a population group that was until recently regarded as immune: Plasmodium vivax clinical malaria is commonly observed in Duffy-negative Malagasy people, Ménard et al., PNAS, Feb 2010.

I will enjoy presenting this paper as it relates directly the molecular biology I studied for my Bachelor’s degree.

I hope you can reply as soon as possible we can begin.

Regards

Pancho Mulongeni