Updates from Ghana – Starting the E-TRF measurement of 2,800 malaria saliva samples

Aqsens Health and Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research’s malaria test research project has been steadily moving ahead throughout 2022. Our Chief Scientific Officer Janne and Head of Laboratory Vilhelmiina will travel to Ghana next week for the analysis of the over 2,800 new malaria saliva samples that were collected during the summer. This is the fourth trip to Ghana for our Head of Laboratory Vilhelmiina, who is excited to get to work on the new sample set. In this post Vilhelmiina gives a few updates on the progress of the project. 

What were some of the most important steps forward in the research project this summer?

During the summer and the autumn of 2022, we’ve made great progress in Ghana. We’ve made important connections with local partners and possible new collaborators, and are now in the process of incorporating a subsidiary in Ghana to look into more possibilities in Western Africa. And most importantly, NMIMR has collected a huge sample set of over 2,800 saliva samples and corresponding blood samples. 

What’s the purpose of the trip this time? 

This time we’re traveling to Ghana to kick-off the malaria saliva sample analysis together with our team at NMIMR. I’m very excited for this trip because the set of samples Noguchi has collected is huge and unique, and this will be a great opportunity for us to make big advances in detecting epidemics and infectious diseases.

Were there any special arrangements you had to make for this specific trip?

Because we will go to Ghana analyse samples with E-TRF, the trip required a bit more arranging than usual. I had to send some temperature sensitive reagents to Ghana in advance, which always involves a bit more work. Luckily we already have experience with that. We also ordered a Tecan Spark –reader to NMIMR, which also required a bit of work, but in the end it went quite smoothly. The Tecan Spark –reader is our preferred TRF-analysis and absorbance measurement platform, so to ensure that the measurement environment in Ghana was exactly the same as the environment at our main laboratories in Turku, a Spark-reader was essential. 

We’ve been chatting back and forth with the team in Ghana throughout September and October to confirm protocol specifications and sample pre-treatment, and our team at NMIMR has made some special arrangements for us to work in their laboratories during our trip. 

Say a few words about the special sample set?

The sample set NMIMR collected is really exceptional. They have collected over 2,800 high-quality saliva and blood samples during this summer, and this is so far the most significant malaria sample set we’ve had the opportunity to analyze. NMIMR has also already confirmed the malaria diagnosis with PCR and RTD tests. 

The samples were collected from over 500 individuals in one week intervals. By analyzing them we can in addition to further developing our biosensor method also investigate how the malaria infection develops, and we can see if we could be able to detect the infection before the symptoms occur. 

What do you expect to be able to do during the week you’ll be spending in Ghana analyzing samples?

The week in Ghana will again be a very busy one. We have a few meetings scheduled with our local partners, but the focus this time is on starting the sample analysis and measurements with our team in Ghana. 

The Ghana-team has pooled and analyzed 500 samples, which we will then begin analyzing with E-TRF. Our plan is to test a few new things with our biosensors, and most importantly, we’ll test and further develop our detection method. After that the team will continue the analyses with the whole sample set and after initial results we will evaluate how we’ll proceed further.

What are the next steps when you get back home? 

It’s going to be pretty busy after we get back to Finland. I will continue managing the research project and supporting the team in Ghana online to get the initial measurement data for data analytics before the end of 2022. We also have to already start preparing for the next research trip to Ghana. It will probably take place sometime early next year after we’ve received the results from the first batch of analyses. Exciting times ahead!

Vilhelmiina Juusti

Head of Laboratory

Aqsens Health Oy