Thursday 25th 2019 is World Malaria Day and we’d like to highlight our new resource, currently under development, called The IUPHAR/MMV Guide to Malaria Pharmacology (GtoMPdb). Based in Edinburgh, this new resource is directed by Professor Jamie Davies and his team and funded by the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).
Malaria and Edinburgh
Malaria and Edinburgh have a long association. This was marked most notably by the announcement by Patrick Manson, at a meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Edinburgh in July 1898, of the discovery by Ronald Ross of the mosquito cycle of the malaria parasite, in a lecture on ‘The mosquito and the malaria parasite’. The first Nobel prize to be awarded to a British subject was awarded in 1902 to Ross for this discovery is now displayed in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. He received the award for showing how the mosquito was the vector for the transmission of malaria. More about Malaria research in Edinburgh.
IUPHAR/MMV Guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY
The IUPHAR/MMV Guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY (GtoMPdb) database portal is a new extension to the existing Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database (GtoPdb). GtoMPdb is being developed as a joint initiative between Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR), with the aim of adding curated antimalarial data to GtoPdb and providing a purpose-built portal that is optimized for the malaria research community.
The parent Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database (GtoPdb) has been extended to incorporate the additional information required to describe the activity and target interactions of antimalarial compounds. It provides a searchable database with quantitative information on Plasmodium molecular targets and the prescription medicines and experimental drugs that act on them. The development of this resource is important because until now there has been no single purpose-built portal into open access, expert curated information on Plasmodium molecular targets and the antimalarial compounds that act on them, including approved drugs, clinical candidates and research leads. This initiative will facilitate access by the malaria research community to lead, target and efficacy data integrated from disparate global R&D efforts.
More information about IUPHAR and MMV, and the project can be found here: https://www.guidetomalariapharmacology.org/malaria/gtmpAbout.jsp.
This blog post gives more detailed information about the development of GtoMPdb.
See also the Edinburgh Infectious Disease news page.
Expert Advisory Committee for the IUPHAR/MMV Guide to Malaria Pharmacology project
David R. Cavanagh, UK (https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-david-cavanagh)
Mark J. Coster, Australia
Michael P. Pollastri, USA
Laurent Rénia, Singapore
J. Alexandra Rowe, UK (http://alexrowe.bio.ed.ac.uk/)
Chris Swain, UK
Matthew H. Todd, UK
Elizabeth A. Winzeler, USA
Scientific Advisors for IUPHAR/MMV Guide to Malaria Pharmacology project
Jeremy N. Burrows, Switzerland
Brice Campo, Switzerland
Stephen P.H. Alexander, UK
Anthony P. Davenport, UK
Jamie A. Davies, UK
F. Javier Gamo, Spain
Michael Spedding, France
Stephen A. Ward, UK
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