INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU)
 
 
The Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) is a collaboration between Mahidol University, the University of Oxford and was established with the Wellcome Trust in 1979. Our main office and laboratories are located within the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. We have study sites and collaborations across Thailand and in other parts of the developing world including Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

MORU is supported with significant funding from the Wellcome Trust, though we also receive funding from other trusts and foundations, governments, and multi-lateral donors.

MORU is part of the Wellcome Trust’s Southeast Asia Major Overseas Programme Network, with the other major programme being based in Vietnam. Together MORU and the Vietnam programme operate as two interwoven networks of research activity, with complementary areas of interest and expertise. Both MORU and Vietnam Major Overseas Programmes (MOPs) have central hubs (in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City respectively) and a number of closely linked major research sites and laboratories within the host countries, in the surrounding region, and beyond. The two hubs have superb strategic locations, with roughly half the world’s population within 2,000 miles of both. Together they form a broad network of tropical medicine research activity, which is unique in its research capabilities and scope, combination of clinical and laboratory expertise, and its flexibility to react quickly to study new and emerging infectious disease threats.

These capabilities and achievements have been built up painstakingly over the past 30 years. They have only been possible through a combination of long term, far-sighted and flexible support from the Wellcome Trust and a management philosophy focused on cooperation and collaboration, which fosters mutual trust between MORU and its host institution, the Faculty of Tropical Medicine.

MORU has a scientific and administrative hub in Bangkok based at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University (the ‘Bangkok Unit’), and major research units on the Thai-Burmese border (the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, or SMRU) and at Mahosot Hospital in Vientiane, Laos (LOMWRU)



MORU’s central aim is to develop effective and practical means of diagnosing and treating the tropical infections responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in populous rural areas of Asia and beyond. Our main research interests are the epidemiology, diagnosis, pathophysiology and treatment of malaria, melioidosis, scrub typhus, leptospirosis and other tropical infections.

MORU’s major areas of activity include:
        Developing new treatments for malaria (particularly in pregnant women)
        Tracking the emergence, spread and implications of anti-malarial drug resistance
        Developing rapid, affordable diagnosis and treatments for infectious diseases
        Identifying counterfeit medicines, and publicizing ways that they can be recognised
        Assessing the impact of research findings on health policy
        Developing the skills and capacity of medical professionals in the developing world

Our main administrative office and laboratories are embedded within Mahidol University’s Faculty of Tropical Medicine in Bangkok, however most of our clinical studies and much of our laboratory work takes place in rural parts of Thailand and in other countries in Asia and Africa.
 
Last updated: April 4, 2013
 
 
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