
Now closed
MMV welcomes proposals in the following three areas:
1. Compounds addressing the key priorities of the malaria eradication agenda
Novel families of molecules in the hit-to-lead or lead optimization stages are sought without G6PD deficiency liabilities that either:
- Kill or reactivate hypnozoites for use as part of a P. vivax radical cure; or
- Have dual activity against asexual and sexual stages (gametocytes) for treatment and transmission blocking.
2. Asexual liver and blood stages
Novel chemical series with EC50<500nM and which have one or more of the following key features:
- A novel mechanism of action
- A long half-life (ideally >4h in rodents) and confirmed in vivo efficacy.
For advanced series, we are seeking novel compounds with, ideally, a predicted human half-life >100h and a predicted single human dose <500mg or three day human dose of <50 mg.
Please see the published MMV Target Candidate Profiles for more information. Early target validation falls outside of our mandate.
3. Novel approaches for screening
To help identify new phenotypic and/ or target based hits, as well as confirm activity of MMV compounds on all human malaria asexual blood stages, new screening proposals are sought amongst the three categories below:
- Validated Plasmodium target-based assays, ideally with evidence of target essentiality beyond asexual blood stages. Biological validation should be supported by a biological target based screening assay suited for identification of novel chemical series.
- Novel whole-cell phenotypic screening paradigms to potentially identify new relevant chemistry.
- Asexual blood-stage assays for vivax, malariae and ovale malaria.
The template and instructions for the 3-page Letter of Interest can be found in the right-hand column of this page.
All applications using the specified templates should be sent to proposals [at] mmv.org by 12 noon CET 25 March 2016.