[Uplifting drum music. Video shows rural agricultural area in Ghana. Text overlays appear]

Volta Region, Ghana, Africa

More than 90% of malaria cases worldwide occur in Africa.

[Video shows mosquitoes in a petri dish]

The mosquito-borne disease claims 400,000 lives every year.

[Video shows various buildings of the University of Ghana. Text overlays appear on screen]

Scientists in Ghana have partnered with Target Malaria
To create a world free of malaria.
Target Malaria is a not-for-profit research consortium
Developing genetic tools to target mosquitoes that transmit malaria.

[Video shows Dr. Fred Aboagye-Antwi lecturing before a university class]

Research in Ghana is headed by Dr. Fred Aboagye-Antwi.

Dr. Fred Aboagye-Antwi, senior lecturer, medical entomology & parasitology, University of Ghana, Accra

Dr. Fred speaking to the camera: “Target Malaria has the ultimate goal of significantly reducing mortality and morbidity associated with malaria. And for us to do this in a efficient and more prudent way, we think that DNA barcoding offers such as good promise.”

[Video shows lab researchers looking through microscopes and placing small samples into dishes. Text overlays appear]

DNA barcoding is a genetic tool that can accurately and rapidly identify species
DNA barcoding can identify a mosquito host species from its blood meal…
And even identify a digested mosquito from a predator’s gut.

[Video shows Dr. Fred Aboagye-Antwi speaking to the camera]

Dr. Fred: “We believe that this tool will help us unravel the various networks that the An. Gambiae, the malaria-causing mosquito, is involved in.”

[Divine Dzokoto, senior stakeholder engagement & communications advisor, Target Malaria, Ghana speaks to camera alongside a graphic showing a map of Africa]

Divine stands outside and speaks to camera: “In Africa, Target Malaria is in four countries: in Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. And the Ghana project is a little different from the other projects, in the sense that, when the project started the questions were being raised that if you were going to eliminate or reduce the populations of mosquitoes drastically, what are going to be the ecological consequences?”

Ghanaian researchers have partnered with the University of Oxford…
To understand the role of mosquitoes in the ecosystem.

[Video shows a researcher in a field working on a mosquito trap]

Dr. Talya Hackett, postdoctoral researcher & project coordinator, Target Malaria, Ghana sits at a lab stool wearing a lab coat and speaks to the camera.

Dr. Talya: “And so, what we are doing is collecting a lot of data based on how things interact. So once we have the interactions in the community, what we can do is, we put it in what’s called an ecological network and that maps, quantitatively, both the insects and what’s eating them but also predators and prey, and also pollinators and plants.”

[Video shows dragonflies amid waterways and bees on flowers]

Dr. Talya: “And once we do that, we can start to look at how these interactions might cascade through the system if we were to remove or disturb it. So, the very first thing we have to do is actually create a barcode library – a DNA barcode library.”

[Video shows a computer screen with coloured barcode lines as well as various insects on pins in display cases.]

A DNA barcode library provides a reliable DNA sequence reference…
For local insects collected in the community.

Dr. Talya: “Once we have that library established, we can then start looking at the feces and gut contents of things that might eat them and use that library to match to what they’ve eaten, also using molecular metabarcoding techniques.”

[Videos shows the tops of trees]

DNA metabarcoding rapidly identifies multiple species from the DNA found in a single sample.

Divine speaking to camera: “My role is to ensure that the project is carried out in collaboration with the communities where the project is being done. And then to codevelop whatever we are doing with them.”

[Video shows Divine sitting at a desk taking notes and scrolling through a laptop]

“It is also to ensure that we implement the project to the highest ethical standards. So to this end, I make sure that for every activity that is to carried out we get individual consent from the individuals that are involved, we get community consent from the entire community before these activities are carried out.”

[Video shows ground insects in a schoolyard. Then shows researchers assembling insect trapping equipment]

Dr. Talya speaks to camera and over above video images: “So, we’ve been collecting terrestrial insects and larval insects from around two villages, every three to four weeks, and we set up passive traps. So, we set up different ways of collecting insects. And leave them up.”

[Video shows various villagers assembling trapping nets as well as Talya in holding up bottles of insect samples]

“And we work very closely with the villagers, we have people who join us every time on each trip, to help us set things up and take things down. So, there’s a pipeline process that goes form the field to the lab here to the labs in Canada and the labs in Oxford.”

Dr. Fred: “We do not have all the skills, and we think by bringing in others, it gives us the opportunity to also benefit from the skills that they possess. We think that Target Malaria came in at the right time to help build the capacity of the people within the university and the country as a whole.”

Dr. Talya: “The barcode library that we are creating but also the ecological network in general is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, constructed to date around the world. So, while its being collected to answer a specific question, the actual data is applicable to so many other questions. So, this project is actually creating a huge wealth of information, not just for us and for what we are doing, but for the broader scientific community and other people within Ghana and within West Africa at a larger scale.”

Dr. Fred: “We look forward to a very successful time here in Ghana with respect to the activities of Target Malaria.”

[Black screen with text overlays]

International Barcode of Life presents
In association with Target Malaria
A video produced by Michelle Lynn D’Souza
Special thanks to Lema Concepts Africa for videography support.