Scientists have developed a technique to rapidly and reliably detect genetic changes in malaria parasites in Ghana, using just a gaming laptop and portable MinION sequencer from Oxford Nanopore.

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Ghana were able to demonstrate for the first time that end-to-end, real-time pathogen monitoring from clinical blood samples is possible in rural, resource-limited malaria hotspots. They looked for key drug resistance markers in the malaria parasite, and diversity in the vaccine target gene.

The findings, published in Nature Microbiology (23 November), pave the way for local monitoring of drug resistance and evaluating new malaria vaccines in affected regions.