2015 Merial grant

Malaria research scientist at KIT, Pètra Mens received the Merial Award on 27 May 2015 for her innovative work in the field of malaria diagnostics. She carried out groundbreaking work for the accessibility of malaria tests and in adequately detecting malaria in pregnant women.

Photo (from left to right): Dr. Guy Caljon, Prof. Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Dr. Pètra Mens en Dr. Renske van Rossem (MERIAL)

Dr. Pètra Mens (33) is working on malaria control since 2004 and now works as research scientist at the Biomedical Research department of KIT (Royal Tropical Institute). Within the Parasitology group she does research into the treatment and diagnosis of malaria in general, and into malaria in pregnant women in particular. The Merial Award is meant as encouragement for her already successful career. Prof. Paul Klatser, Head of KIT Biomedical Research is proud of colleague Dr. Pètra Mens for receiving the prestigious Merial Award. “It is important that our research is applied research and has an impact. Pètra works with the same conviction. Her work is strongly driven by a combination of knowledge, innovation and realism.”

Sensitive malaria detection tool now also for in the field
Malaria is deadly if it is not adequately treated. Annually 500,000 to 1 million people worldwide die because of this disease. Symptoms are not specific, so correct diagnosis to recognize malaria is essential for the right treatment. Many malaria infections are, however, not detected by the standard diagnostics. Mens has developed a tool that is very sensitive and can detect low concentrations of malaria. Besides, this tool is useful outside the laboratory and in the field. This makes diagnosing malaria much cheaper and more accessible, without losing quality.

Malaria in pregnant women detected more easily

Mens has had a great impact on the optimization of the diagnosis of malaria in pregnant women. The disease could not be detected with standard methods, because malaria parasites hide in the placenta. Mens showed that already simply testing pregnant women at the end of their pregnancy, not standard practice currently, significantly lowered the risk of low birth weight and other negative consequences. This method is easy to implement and testing can also be done at the villages where the women live instead of in a hospital. In the coming years, she plans to direct her research at better predicting risk groups of women that can get malaria in pregnancy in order to give even better care.

Merial Award
The Merial Award is a professional prize for young, promising researchers in the field of veterinary or medical parasitology. The award consists of a certificate and pecuniary donation of € 3000. It is meant to encourage further professional ambitions in parasitology in the Benelux and reward the scientific quality and active spread of research. On Wednesday, 27 May the award was handed to Mens during the scientific meeting of the Dutch Parasitology Association in Utrecht.

More info:
http://www.kit.nl/biomedical-research/staff/petra-f-mens/
Or contact KIT Marketing & Communications: communicatie@kit.nl
Ph: 020- 5688537

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