Portland State Magazine Winter 2016

winter 2016 pORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 21 In pregnant women, it can infect the placenta, which is fatal to the baby. It can even spread to other mosquitoes. Uninfected mosquitoes feeding on a person with malaria can get infected by the parasite, further spreading the disease in a never-ending cycle. Many strains of malaria have become resistant to common antimalarial drugs to the point where the disease has become virtually untreatable in some parts of the world, including the border between Cambodia and Thailand. Drug resistance is one of the most daunting problems in fighting the disease. In a project unrelated to Reynolds’ research, PSU chemistry professor David Peyton is working to develop hybrid versions of chloroquinine, which for many years was considered a miracle drug in treating malaria until the disease developed a resistance to it. His work led to the founding of DesignMedix, a company that specializes in rapid and low-cost approaches to fighting drug-resistant diseases, such as malaria, that have decimated impoverished populations worldwide. The company is housed in the Portland State Business Accelerator. One of the beauties of Reynolds’ discovery is that it works against drug-resistant malaria, he says. That in itself could be a major advancement in worldwide malaria treatment. Equally important, Reynolds says, is the possibility of efficiently and economically bringing the medication to poor countries where it’s needed most. “In the Third World, having doctors to provide injections, having needles, having refrigerators to hold medicines stable and cold is highly problematic. So having a single pill that you could take that would be curative would be transformative,” he says.  Chemistry faculty Kevin Reynolds (center), Jane Kelly and Papireddy Kancharla discovered a compound that kills the malaria parasite in mice and human blood with a single low dose.