NOMADS II: Expanding nanopore sequencing of malaria

Tools to prevent and treat malaria are growing more advanced and easier to access—but just as our tools evolve, so, too does the malaria parasite. As countries push to reduce and ultimately eliminate malaria, parasite surveillance will be essential to provide early warning signals for emerging biological threats to the fight against malaria and determine appropriate responses to a changing parasite.

Nanopore–based sequencing platforms offer the potential for affordable malaria molecular surveillance in resource–limited settings to track and ultimately counteract emerging threats, such as drug resistance and diagnostic escape.

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NOMADS developed a cost–effective, scalable assay to detect antimalarial drug resistance in P. falciparum using nanopore sequencing, and demonstrated its feasibility in a pilot conducted in collaboration with the Zambia National Malaria Elimination Centre. This demonstrated that rapid in-country sequencing to identify antimalarial drug resistance was not only possible, but also required minimal infrastructure, allowing for the detection of drug resistance to happen closer to where policies and decisions are made. 

Building on that success, NOMADS II is continuing to strengthen and expand the use of nanopore sequencing for malaria genomic surveillance.

BMGF project detailsPATH project details

Capacity Strengthening
Drug Resistance
Enabling Technologies & Assays
Health Systems
Surveillance

Nov 2022 — Dec 2025

$4.94M

Burkina Faso
Dem. Rep. of Congo
Kenya
Namibia
Nigeria
Zambia

Malaria Molecular Surveillance (MMS)