Teun Bousema (44) was awarded his PhD with honours, has received numerous research grants and prizes and has extensive international research experience. Despite his successful career, the professor in the Epidemiology of Tropical Infectious Diseases makes a modest impression. He consistently uses the ‘we’ form and generously compliments his colleagues while walking to the mosquito lab - “That was a really nice presentation, very impressive.”
In his office at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS), Bousema – who specialises in malaria research – explains that his group consists of researchers from a wide range of backgrounds, from molecular biologists to epidemiologist and clinicians. In this way they cover the full breadth of malaria research. “You need that because it is such a complex disease.”
Malaria is an infectious disease that is accompanied by severe fever attacks, and is regularly fatal. The culprit is a single-celled parasite – Plasmodium falciparum – that is transmitted by mosquitoes. An estimated 400,000 people die from malaria every year, many of them young children below the age of 5.
Silent malaria
Until now, much attention has been paid to this young target group. However, based on recent research in Uganda, Bousema’s group showed that children between the ages of 5 and 15 are the ‘super spreaders’ of malaria. “They are the driving force behind the spread of the disease. Their immune response prevents them from getting sick themselves, but they still carry the parasite in their blood. When a mosquito bites them, it picks up the parasite from their blood and spreads the disease unnoticed.”
It is precisely by tackling this ‘silent malaria’ that his research group can make an important contribution to preventing the spread of the disease. “You can reduce the number of cases and deaths, but you can also prevent mosquitoes from becoming infected in the first place. That way you are one step ahead of the pathogen. I believe that this step is crucial, especially because the reproduction number – which we have all become familiar with during the COVID-19 pandemic – is so high for malaria. In Africa, the R number for malaria is 104 on average, which is much higher than for other diseases.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently invited the Nijmegen professor to collaborate with 19 other experts on a manual for the eradication of malaria. “This direct impact of our work on international health policy is even better than I could have dreamed. Our malaria eradication manual will be very influential. All the countries in the world pay attention to what the WHO recommends.”
Making research more sustainable
As if he isn’t busy enough already, the vicar’s son has given himself another task. In addition to his malaria work, Bousema works tirelessly to make research more sustainable, for example by critically looking at the need for air travel to attend international conferences and exploring digital alternatives. He effortlessly cites supporting data, including tonnes of CO2 emissions, kilometres of air travel and kilojoules of energy consumption. However, his self-imposed mission to improve the sustainability of research has not been an easy task. “It has been a struggle and has not increased my popularity. Asking people to make a sacrifice is always difficult. And asking people to reduce their air travel is a sensitive point because it affects their autonomy. Some travel is necessary for international cooperation, but researchers simply enjoy it as well. The latter is not a legitimate reason to travel, especially when the CO2 emissions from air travel are so high. You can't compensate for that by eating veggie burgers.”
Tip: Calculate your own carbon footprint
“There are good websites for doing that. For example, you can check whether a vegan diet compensates for your travel behaviour. Such a diet may save about 2 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. But a single return flight to New York generates roughly the same emissions.”
Foto's: Flip Franssen