Capturing the Work of Target Malaria

At the end of March 2018, two members of the Emerging Team spent 10 days in Burkina Faso and Mali filming the work of Target Malaria. Target Malaria is a global research consortium working to save millions of lives from malaria by developing new, cost-effective, and sustainable genetic technologies to modify mosquitoes and reduce malaria transmission. 

Our work was to produce a set of videos and images that capture and simplify the complex work done in Target Malaria’s insectaries – the labs where they work on mosquitoes. This was an exciting project, and after nearly two weeks spent with the team, we developed a greater understanding of their work and, perhaps, even a budding fondness for mosquitoes!

In both Burkina Faso (at the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé in BoboDioulasso) and in Mali (at the University of Bamako, Malaria Research and Training Center) we filmed a visit of the team’s insectaries with a Target Malaria team member and a local member of the community. The visits are very in-demand, so the purpose of the videos will be to enable the teams to share their work, without creating disruptions for the mosquitoes inside and the work of the project.

Safety is extremely important to the Target Malaria team: before we could access the labs we were put through a detailed induction training process led by one of the scientists. The project is deeply engaged in the local community and we were able to witness the amazing work of the team in the field. 

The complexity and detail of the work done by Target Malaria is so impressive and we hope our videos do justice to the care they put into their work! 

Learn more about the work of Target Malaria: www.targetmalaria.org  

Learn more about our engagement with Target Malaria: https://emergingag.com/target-malaria