On 10 October 2017, Dr. Jetsumon Sattabongkot Prachumsri from MVRU, Mahidol University, Thailand together with Prof. Dennis Kyle, University of South Florida, Prof. Elizabeth Winzeler, University of California received MMV’s Project of the Year 2016. The award recognizes their groundbreaking research working on liver stage P. vivax malaria.
The MMV Project of the Year award is an internal MMV award, established in 2001 to recognize the most exciting drug discovery and development projects in the MMV portfolio and applauds the scientific partners involved. The Project of the Year is selected by MMV’s independent Expert Scientific Advisory Committee at the end of each year.(https://www.mmv.org/research-development/project-year-award)
The awarded studies are different platforms of in vitro system helping to understand complex biology of P. vivax liver stage. This provides new assay platforms for screening and identifying novel drugs that could protect and prevent relapse from the dormant liver stages of P. vivax for the first time.