Identification of novel antimalarial compounds

Plasmodium falciparum developed resistances against all antimalarial drugs currently on the market, even against the present gold standard of antimalarial therapy, the artemisinin-based combination therapies. Therefore, the search for radically new chemotypes has been given top priority. Here, natural compound screening experiences a revival, since natural compounds offer two key advantages: (i) natural products resulted in the identification of highly innovative scaffolds and (ii) they take the chiral world into account. In collaboration with the BVT (Lehrstuhl für Bioverfahrenstechnik), we test extracts of algae (top left picture: Euglena viridis algae, picture by S. Ringgeler BVT) on their antimalarial potential. The screening assays were quantified in 96-well plates (picture on the right) with the VICTOR™ X4 Multilabel Plate Reader with dispenser (lower picture).