2 July 2004
Great Grand-daughter of malaria discoverer boosts tropical disease research
The great-granddaughter of the man who discovered that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes will make
a donation towards tropical disease research in the new Life Sciences research building at the University
of Dundee - Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR) on Monday, 5 July.
Fiona Ross-Anderson is the former President of the Inner Wheel Club of Kinross and District and has
nominated research into malaria and other parasitic infectious diseases as a major beneficiary of the
Club’s fundraising events over the past year when she was President.
Mrs Ross-Anderson will present the £700 cheque to Professor Michael Ferguson, a leading expert on the
biochemistry of tropical parasitic diseases and one of the leading figures behind the new building.
Mrs Ross-Anderson's great-grandfather, Sir Ronald Ross, was the first Scot and first person and British
person to receive the Nobel Prize. He received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for
his work on malaria. Whilst working in India in the 1890s, Sir Ronald experimented with birds that were
sick with malaria and discovered the malarial parasite in the saliva glands of the Anopheles mosquito.
From this he was soon able to determine the entire life cycle of the malarial parasite and demonstrated
that malaria was transmitted from infected birds to healthy ones by the bite of a mosquito. This
discovery suggested how the disease was transmitted to humans and laid foundations for combating the
disease.
Perhaps even more important was his subsequent pioneering work on mosquito epidemiology. For example, he
developed mathematical formulas to prevent future outbreaks of malaria and other mosquito borne diseases
which are still very relevant today.
Professor Ferguson said "We are delighted to receive this very generous donation from the Inner Wheel
Club of Kinross and District. That the donation will be handed over by Mrs Ross-Anderson is very
fitting. The discovery made by her ancestor Sir Ronald Ross at the end of the nineteenth century is one
of the most important in medicine."
"Malaria is the single biggest killer of children in the world claiming more than 1 million lives a year
and affects the world’s poorest people in developing countries. Malaria is becoming resistant to the
traditional drugs used for treatment and very few new drugs are available to take their place. Because of
the low health-care budgets in sub-Saharan Africa (about 10 pounds per person per year, compared with
over 2 to 3 thousand pounds per person per year in the developed world) the pharmaceutical industry is
largely disinterested in developing drug treatment for this and many other tropical diseases.
University-based research is therefore critical to the search for new medicines to combat these appalling
diseases."
Dundee boasts one of the leading research divisions in Europe studying African sleeping sickness, Chagas'
disease, Leishmaniasis and malaria, who are based in the Division of Biological Chemistry and Molecular
Microbiology in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre. This research will be enhanced in the CIR, which is under
construction and will be joined to and fully integrated with the Wellcome Trust Biocentre. The CIR will
include a new purpose-built Division of Drug Development, that will house world-class facilities in
medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry, computational chemistry and compound screening laboratories,
aimed at developing new, safer and more effective drug therapies for the treatment of global parasitic
diseases as well as new treatments for diabetes, cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Notes to Editor
Established in 1924, Inner Wheel is one of the largest worldwide organisations for women. It was formed
to complement Rotary and took the name Inner Wheel to emphasise the strong links between the two
organisations. The Association fundraises for a wide variety of causes at home and overseas. There are
1041 Clubs in the 29 Districts throughout the UK and Ireland.
By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk | 
