SwRI, UTSA RESEARCHERS RECEIVE GRANT TO REDUCE COST OF MALARIA TREATMENT

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are working to synthesize novel highly potent derivatives of the antimalarial drug artemisinin with the goal of creating a powerful, cost-effective malaria treatment. Led by Dr. Shawn Blumberg of SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division and Dr. Doug Frantz of the Department of Chemistry within UTSA’s College of Sciences, the work is supported by a $125,000 grant from the Connecting through Research Partnerships (CONNECT) program.

In 2018, Blumberg and Frantz collaborated in a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a more efficient synthesis of artemisinin, a drug derived from the sweet wormwood Artemisia annua. While artemisinin is considered the most effective treatment for malaria, the mosquito-borne parasitic infection is becoming harder to battle as it becomes increasingly resistant to drugs like artemisinin.