Activities

Malaria is one of the three largest infectious diseases in the world, together with HIV and tuberculosis. According to the 2023 WHO report, some 263 million cases and 597,000 deaths, mostly children less than 5 years of age, were estimated. Although malaria vaccines, Mosquirix (RTS, S/AS01) a nd R 21/MM, were recently introduced and recommended by WHO in 2021 and 2023, they still suffer from issues such as insufficient efficacy. In addition, increasing number of drug-resistant malaria to existing drugs is threatening the global health, necessitating the development of new drugs for treatment and prevention.
In this department, a SHIONOGI’s researcher takes a role of principal investigator (PI), and drives small molecule drug discovery. We work as a research hub that harmonizes the malaria research assets of Nagasaki University, such as research know-how and global network, with SHIONOGI’s SAR（structure-activity relationship） engine for small molecule drug discovery. By synergizing the strengths of each organizations, this department aims to deliver drugs for treatment and prevention with strong antimalarial potency and high safety. We are also collaborating with domestic and overseas research organizations, including MMV (Medicines for Malaria Venture), facilitating further optimization of the leads and screening hits we have obtained.
Part of the research activities in this department is financially supported by Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund).

Research activities are as follows:

• Screening of compound libraries for hits and SAR studies for leads.
• Lead optimization SAR studies based on known scaffolds.
• Novel target identification studies and basic research.
• Strengthening external collaboration for SAR study and clinical development.