Ashley Morgan Burke is a PhD candidate based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is affiliated with the Wits Research Institute of Malaria, and the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic & Parasitic Diseases. Upon hearing about her research and the implications that it has, both nationally and globally, I have asked her to share a bit about it.
Ashley's Story:
I
adore insects (mostly). I find their interactions with the natural world and
each other completely fascinating. Insects are among some of the most prolific
life forms on earth so it’s a no-brainer to me that they should be a thoroughly
researched group. Despite the ubiquity of all the pretty, unusual, and popular
insect study offerings, I have found myself studying the most unpopular insect-
the dreaded mosquito.
After
having completed my undergrad and honours degree at Rhodes University in
Grahamstown, I decided to make the jump to the larger and more exciting city of
Jozi to undertake my MSc degree in Health Science at Wits. This was a decision that
catapulted my scientific education and career into motion. My masters work was
centred around malaria vector surveillance in South Africa, which involved a
lot of field work in Mpumalanga as this is one of our malaria-endemic regions.
I was involved in monthly field trips to rural villages in Mpumalanga where we
would collect wild mosquitoes from clay pot resting traps and return to the
labs in Johannesburg to analyse them. Back at the lab, the wild mosquitoes were
identified to species using molecular techniques and screened for the presence
of the malaria parasite (Plasmodium
falciparum). I was very unlucky with the timing of my masters work, as all of
my fieldwork (just over a year’s worth) coincided perfectly with the worst
drought South Africa has experienced in 100 years. So that left me with a tiny
sample size and a bit of a sinking feeling of having been defeated by the
natural elements.
Then
my luck bounced back. While processing and screening some of my wild-caught
specimens, I got an unusual result that showed that one of my specimens tested
positive for the malaria parasite. It was unusual because this species of
mosquito had never before been implicated in malaria transmission anywhere in
the world. This was highly significant to both the mosquito-world and the
public health system and we (my supervisor and other departmental seniors) were
very excited about it. Incriminating a new secondary vector mosquito of malaria
contributes to our greater understanding of how this disease persists at the residual
level in South Africa all through the year, in spite of the control strategies
that have been implemented in the affected regions. This discovery led to a
first-author publication with my fellow student at the time, now Dr Leonard
Dandalo, in a very high impact journal. I was ecstatic.
My
masters work then drew to a close and I decided to upgrade my MSc to a PhD
degree, which was assisted by the publication on the MSc work, and I am now
working towards completing my PhD degree. My work is still largely based on
malaria vector surveillance in South Africa, with an additional focus on the
seasonal biology of malaria vector mosquitoes. I am still involved with a lot of
fieldwork and running of experiments to monitor the effects of season on
mosquito metabolic activity. This work will give us an idea of how or if
mosquitoes change their behaviour at the onset of different seasons and whether
we could target them at their vulnerable (winter) stage to reduce their
population growth in the following summer season. As it stands, malaria
transmission continues right through the year, albeit with a decline in winter,
and we are trying to figure out how best to tailor our control strategies to match
the changing behaviour of the vector mosquitoes.
Malaria
is considered one of the world’s most devastating diseases and the carrier
mosquito has caused more human deaths than any other animal on the planet. This
places a huge amount of gravity to our work on the national and global scale. I
am so grateful to be working with and under the supervision of some
world-renowned researchers who pioneered understanding of the vector mosquito Anopheles and its interaction with the
malaria parasite. This field of work has ever-increasing scientific interest
and it is time for the rest of world to appreciate the overwhelming importance
of the humble mosquito.
Some
key malaria facts from the World Health Organisation Malaria Report 2017:
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