Antimalarial drug development and new targets

The Molecular Approaches to Malaria (MAM2000) conference, Lorne, Australia, 2-5 February 2000, brought together world-class malaria research scientist s. The development of new, tools and technologies - transfection, DNA micro arrays and proteomic analysis - and the availability of DNA sequences gener ated by the Malaria Genome Project, along with more classic approaches, hav e facilitated the identification of novel drug targets, the development of new antimalarials and the generation of a deeper understanding of the molec ular mechanism(s) of drug resistance in malaria. It is hoped that combinati ons of these technologies could lead to strategies that enable the developm ent of effective, efficient ann affordable new drugs to overcome drug-resis tant malaria, ns discussed at MAM2000 and outlined here by Ian Macreadie an d colleagues.