Scientist in the lab

Who we are

MVRU is a major unit of the Malaria Excellence Centre of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. Founded in 2011 under the leadership of Dr. Jetsumon Sattabongkot, the MVRU has grown from 8 staff to over 30 currently. With full access to Mahidol University facilities and supporting infrastructure, including well equipped field laboratories in malaria endemic sites, MVRU has established itself as a leader in Plasmodium vivax research. The unit has attracted many international research supports aiming to drive malaria elimination.

Collecting blood

Our Mission

MVRU’s mission is to accelerate malaria elimination through research. To achieve our goal, we strive to fill important knowledge gaps in P. vivax biology as well as to provide platforms for development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. MVRU staff work both in the field and in the lab to discover, create, and validate new ways to fight malaria.

Collecting blood samples at a field lab

How we achieve our goals

Working closely with community leaders in the endemic areas of Thailand and leading international scientists, we have built a strong collaborative network to support frontier research in vivax malaria. Population-based studies (social and epidemiological) have been a major part of our research to advance understanding of risk factors, trends of infection, and impacts of different interventions.

Fresh P. vivax parasites from patients and asymptomatic carriers allows investigation of the biology of all stages of the parasite. With our high-quality colonies of Anopheline mosquitos, we can study malaria transmission in the well-controlled laboratory settings. Our high-capacity production of female An. dirus also enables studies and drug screening against the elusive liver-stage parasites including hypnozoites.

Under microscope

What's next

Within the next 5 years, we will put our best effort to provide a better understanding malaria transmission, develop new transmission blocking vaccines for P. vivax, evaluate novel interventions, validate new diagnostic tools, and close key knowledge gaps in P. vivax biology related to the parasite dormancy and population reservoir.

Our Funders

Our Collaborators

Liwang Cui, Professor
  • Characterization of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association... - see project »
  • The comprehensive study on the effect of primaquine treatment in P.... - see project »
  • Development of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association with... - see project »
  • Transcriptomes and Proteomes of Plasmodium vivax - see project »
Centre d'Immunologie et des Maladies Infectieuses, France
Eun-Taek Han, Professor
    Kazuo Miyazaki
      Nicholas PJ Day, Professor
        Rob Moon, Assistant Professor
          Hernando Del Portillo Obando, Professor
            Simon Draper, Dr.
              Angela Minassian, Dr.
                Sumi Biswas, Dr.
                  Arturo Reyes-Sandoval, Professor
                    Anjali Yadava, Dr.
                      Nirbhay Kumar, Professor
                        Sangeeta Bhatia, Dr.
                          Glenn A. McConkey, Associate Professor
                            Sebastian Mikolajczak, Dr.
                              Jun Li
                                Motomi Torii, Professor
                                • Characterization of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association... - see project »
                                Eizo Takashima , Associate Professor
                                • Characterization of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association... - see project »
                                Takafumi Tsuboi, Professor
                                • Characterization of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association... - see project »
                                Tomoko Ishino, Associate Professor
                                • Characterization of Plasmodium vivax gametocyte and its association... - see project »
                                Ivo Mueller, Professor
                                Rhea Longley, DPhil
                                  Alan Cowman, Professor
                                    Wai-Hong Tham, Associate Professor
                                      Ingrid Felger, Professor
                                        Guiyun Yan, Professor
                                          Noah Sather, Assistant Professor
                                            Alexis Kaushansky, Assistant Professor
                                              Stefan Kappe, Professor
                                                Osamu Kaneko, Professor
                                                  Pennstate University

                                                  Liwang Cui, Pennstate University
                                                  Richard Elliott, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
                                                  Franetich Jean-François, Centre d'Immunologie et des Maladies Infectieuses, France
                                                  Liwang Cui, Pennstate University
                                                  Richard Elliott, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
                                                  Franetich Jean-François, Centre d'Immunologie et des Maladies Infectieuses, France
                                                  Liwang Cui, Pennstate University

                                                  Speak to one of our researchers to learn more about us. We’re always interested to chat!

                                                  Contact us