This project serves to provide reference reagents to the malaria research community and is intended to fill a scientific need for discovering and developing new approaches to control this disease which affects billions of people globally. The establishment of such a reagent repository has been repeatedly recommended by scientists involved in malaria research including those seeking to develop new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines as well as vector control strategies. Specifically, the repository contractor will be responsible for the acquisition, inventorying, labeling, storage, characterization and distribution of the following reagents: antibodies (polyclonal and monoclonal) against malaria proteins; malaria proteins, including candidate vaccine antigens; molecular biological reagents, including genome and expression libraries prepared from plasmodium spp. The contractor will be responsible for the development and maintenance of a computerized system for cataloging these reagents and for making them available to the scientific community.
