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.