March 2026 Newsletter

March Newsletter

As we step into a new year of opportunity, we’re excited to build on the momentum of our collective efforts to tackle malaria across the Asia-Pacific. 2026 brings fresh energy to the ACREME network, with new initiatives designed to strengthen collaboration, accelerate impact, and support our community in even more practical and targeted ways.

This year, we’re introducing a new format for our ACREME webinars, with sessions grouped under our three major themes: Track, Treat, and Prevent. By aligning discussions and knowledge-sharing within these core pillars, we aim to foster deeper engagement, highlight cross-cutting insights, and create clearer pathways from research to implementation.

We’re also delighted to launch our Regional Hub specific Travel and Training Grants, providing new opportunities to support capacity building, strengthen regional partnerships, and empower the next generation of malaria researchers and practitioners.

There’s much to look forward to in the months ahead. Read on to find out more about these new initiatives and how you can get involved as we continue working together toward malaria elimination.

Kind regards,
Professor Freya Fowkes
Lead Investigator

Congratulations to Angela Devine, Maria Ome-Kaius and Leanne Robinson on their recent Synergy Grant funding success with former ACREME investigators James McCarthy and James McCaw. The team has been awarded $5million in funding for research that focuses on a genetic solution to eradicate falciparum malaria. The grant aims to optimise the gene drive through lab testing, human safety and efficacy trials, model the optimal release and estimate the potential economic benefits, and work with health authorities and communities to co-develop public engagement approaches and a roadmap towards approval for a pilot in Papua New Guinea.

Congratulations to Prof James Beeson, Dr Herbert Opi and Dr Rhea Longley on a breakthrough in the fight against Plasmodium vivax. Their latest research reveals that protection depends not simply on having antibodies, but on how they function and the specific parasite proteins they target. By studying children in Papua New Guinea, the team showed that strong, multi-targeted immune responses could reduce malaria risk by more than 75%. This landmark discovery provides a clear pathway toward the first effective P. vivax vaccine and renewed hope for global malaria elimination.

ACREME Strategic Advisory Group Member,  Prof Stephen Rogerson has received an Ideas Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council to advance monoclonal antibodies targeting the placental malaria antigen VAR2CSA. The project is led by Prof Rogerson and Dr Elizabeth Aitken at the University of Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

Join ACREME’s monthly 60-minute webinar series, bringing together diverse perspectives on policy, practice, and research. Each session features up to two invited speakers, one offering insights from a policy, social science, implementation, or programmatic perspective, and the other focusing on evidence generation or academic research.

This event brings together local partners to strengthen networks, spark new collaborations, and advance early-stage innovation in vaccine development, with a focus on emerging concepts and shared opportunities.