MKU don leads elite team in new research on elusive placental malaria
Mount Kenya University is leading a multinational consortium investigating malaria in pregnancy, supported by a £2 million (about Ksh340 million) Wellcome Discovery Award. The five-year programme, led by Principal Investigator Prof Jesse Gitaka, convenes an elite team of scientists from Kenya, the United Kingdom and Germany, to advance the understanding of placental pathology and transform diagnostics and therapies for pregnant women in malaria-endemic regions.
The programme will establish the Centre for Placenta Research – a state-of-the-art genomics and molecular biology hub. It will be hosted within the MKU Centre for Malaria Elimination at the Main Campus in Thika, with strong collaborations across high-burden Kenyan counties.
The centre will serve as a regional first and a global reference point for research on placental malaria and other vertically transmitted conditions. Its mandate includes developing tools to prevent miscarriages, stillbirths, preterm birth, low birth weight, and congenital anomalies linked to infectious and environmental insults during gestation.
Placental malaria remains one of the most insidious complications of pregnancy. That’s because in the placenta, the red blood cells that are infected with the malaria causing parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) get lodged in the intervillous space – the placental region that is filled with maternal blood – often escaping routine diagnostics.
Globally, the condition is estimated to contribute to at least 10,000 maternal deaths, 200,000 stillbirths, and over 500,000 low-birthweight infants annually, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is according to studies reported in the Lancet Infectious Diseases 2007, and Nature Reviews Microbiology 2018.
To address this, the MKU-led consortium will deploy high-resolution molecular technologies – including single-cell RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and targeted immunoassays – to map infection at the cellular level and identify early biomarkers of placental injury.
These insights will guide precision interventions to protect the mother and foetus. Prof Gitaka notes the emerging resistance to current antimalarial regimens and emphasizes the urgency of discovering novel therapeutic strategies. A key objective is to accelerate development of a placental-malaria vaccine tailored to local parasite diversity, complementing ongoing global efforts on VAR2CSA-based candidates. VAR2CSA is a protein contained in the malaria-causing Plasmodium falciparum, and it is what enables the infected red blood cells to bind onto the placenta.
Beyond malaria, the team will interrogate additional threats to foetal development, including congenital syphilis, rubella, and environmental pollutants, which remain underdiagnosed yet contribute substantially to perinatal morbidity. Capacity building is central to the programme. Local scientists will be trained to perform advanced molecular analyses on Kenyan-derived samples, ensuring sustainable expertise. Although the project spans five years, the consortium aims to generate major scientific breakthroughs – particularly new diagnostic leads – within the first three years.
The Centre for Placenta Research will position Kenya at the forefront of global perinatal infectious-disease research
