Open Innovation and the Fight against Malaria
From designing new medicines and developing computer games to crowdfunding projects and using computer downtime, open innovation is helping to transform the global response to malaria.
According to the World Malaria Report 2013 by the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria, of which 1.2 billion are at high risk.
While open innovation doesn’t have all the answers it can help to enhance knowledge, accelerate drug discovery and create more effective interventions. Here are three approaches where the crowd is helping:
GO Fight against Malaria – a crowdsourcing initiative to find a cure for drug-resistant malaria. The public volunteer their computers for use when idle to form part of IBM’s World Community Grid (WCG). During the project computers screen millions of chemical compounds to find ones that can bind to key molecular drug targets from the malaria parasite. The ultimate aim is to discover new ways of interfering with the molecular machinery the parasite needs to survive and reproduce.
A free to play crowdsourcing game – the online game is designed to let players help doctors by speeding up the process of distinguishing malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones. It is based on the premise that a lay audience can be trained to recognize microscopic images of infectious disease cells as accurately as pathologists
A crowdfunding campaign to distribute free insect repellent T shirts to Africa – the clothing can provide vital protection to those living in at risk areas. The solution applied to the t-shirts blocks the pores of the female mosquito antenna and the effect can last for the natural life of the garment. The campaign on indiegogo.com has set a goal of £50,000 (approx. USD $82,000) and has 61 days left to run.
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