Annex 5
MRC RESEARCH PORTFOLIO—HIGHLIGHTS
Identifying and evaluating innovative strategies
to prevent infectious diseases (MDGs 5 & 6)
Research by the MRC Unit in Uganda working with
the MRC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) and other partners in Africa,
the UK and the US established the safety of a new vaginal microbicide
product, PRO2000, a naphthalene polymer. The Microbicide Development
Programme (MDP) is currently evaluating acceptability and effectiveness
of PRO2000 in protecting women from acquiring HIV. It has already
established that populations in Africa find the use of the product
highly acceptable. The Programme is also creating substantial
new capacity in Africa for future trials as new microbicide products
become available. The MDP is managed by the CTU and Imperial College
and funded by DFID and MRC.
Adopting innovative treatment strategies to the
context of resource poor countries (MDG 6)
The work of the Uganda Unit has already shown
that it is possible to cut substantially mortality due to AIDS
in Africa. The MRC Clinical Trials Unit and the Uganda Unit are
building on that work with other African and UK partners to identify
effective strategies for monitoring ART in patients in resource
poor settings without reliable laboratory support (the DART Trial:
Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy for Africa). The Uganda
Unit is also investigating how best ART can be rolled out effectively
in such settings, and whether HIV treatment can be integrated
with HIV prevention activities cost-effectively. These studies
also generate insights into how these interventions work. DART
is co-funded by MRC, DFID, the Rockefeller Foundation and drug
donations from pharmaceutical companies.
Pioneering an effective vaccine for malaria (MDG
6)
The Gambia has been the site of the most extensive
intervention studies on what is currently the most efficacious
vaccine against malaria, the RTS,S/ASO2A vaccine developed by
MRC and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The results from the Gambia have
lead to further studies for phase I and II trials in Mozambique
with support from the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). Pioneering
MRC studies, such as the malaria vaccine trials carried out under
the MRC/DFID concordat, often lead to further studies in countries
where the MRC has no direct research investment.
Providing the evidence for national HIV prevention
strategies (MDG 6)
Uganda has been at the forefront in reducing
the incidence of HIV. But a longitudinal study of the trend in
the HIV epidemic signalled that the prevalence and incidence of
HIV were no longer declining. In some population subgroups cases
are increasing. Although the study outcome presented a difficult
message, the MRC Unit and the Ugandan Ministry of Health worked
closely together, contributing substantially to the Government
launching a new prevention strategy in 2006-07.
Exploiting genomic technologies to combat drug
resistance and develop effective vaccines
Revolutionary advances in genome research provide
unprecedented opportunities to overcome the hurdles of drug resistance
through the discovery of natural mechanisms of protective immunity
and by identifying the molecular tricks employed by parasites
and microbes to evade the human immune system and resist drugs.
The MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health at the University
of Oxford aims to exploit these opportunities by integrating state-of-the-art
genome research methods into large scale studies of diseases in
affected populations.
The full global health research portfolio is available
on request from MRC
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