Eduard Rovira
Coordinator Malaria and Neglected Parasitic Diseases | Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health
Eduard Rovira-Vallbona is Coordinator at the Malaria Physiopathology and Genomics group of ISGlobal. He has more than 15 years of experience in malaria biomedical research, project management, and capacity building in Europe, Africa, and South-East Asia.
He obtained his PhD degree at the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB)-University of Barcelona (2011), in which he studied molecular mechanisms and host immunological responses in malaria during pregnancy. In 2013, he joined the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM, Antwerp, Belgium) as Postdoctoral researcher and later as Scientific Expert Fellow (2016-2018). At ITM he coordinated projects on malaria molecular epidemiology, antimalarial drug resistance and malaria transmission dynamics in collaboration with partners from Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Peru, and Mozambique. He also co-led two therapeutic efficacy trials for P. falciparum and P. vivax in Central Vietnam.
Between 2018 and 2021 he worked as consultant on epidemiology and molecular biology (Vysnova Partners, United States) for the US DoD-funded malaria research program in Vietnam, with a focus on the asymptomatic malaria parasite reservoir and resistance to rapid diagnostic tests.
Since 2021 he is part of the Malaria Physiopathology and Genomics group, where he coordinates malaria genomic surveillance activities, provides technical assistance to the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM, Mozambique) and supports the PI in the overall supervision of team’s activities.
Lines of research
- Implementation of malaria genomic surveillance systems in low-to-middle income countries
- Molecular epidemiology of P.falciparum resistance to antimalarial drugs and point-of-care diagnostics
- Use of genomic tools for improving malaria stratification, monitoring and impact evaluations in different epidemiological settings
Main publications
- Boene S, Rovira-Vallbona E, da Silva C et al. Antimalarial drug resistance and population structure of Plasmodium falciparum in Mozambique using genomic surveillance at health facilities (2021-2022). VeriXiv Preprint 2024, 1:31
- Rovira-Vallbona E, Kattenberg JH, Hong NV, Guetens P, Imamura H, Monsieurs P, Chiheb D, Erhart A, Phuc BQ, Xa NX, Rosanas-Urgell A. Molecular surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum drug-resistance markers in Vietnam using multiplex amplicon sequencing (2000-2016). Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 25;13(1):13948.
- Rovira-Vallbona E*, Hong NV*, Kattenberg JH, Huan RM, Hien NTT, Ngoc NTH, Guetens P, Hieu NL, Mai TT, Duong NTT, Duong TT, Phuc BQ, Xa NX, Erhart A, Rosanas-Urgell A. Efficacy of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine and artesunate monotherapy for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Central Vietnam. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2020 Aug 1;75(8):2272-2281.
- Rovira-Vallbona E, Contreras-Mancilla JJ, Ramirez R, Guzmán-Guzmán M, Carrasco-Escobar G,Llanos-Cuentas A, Vinetz JM, Gamboa D, Rosanas-Urgell A. Predominance of asymptomatic and submicroscopic infections characterizes the Plasmodium gametocyte reservoir in the Peruvian Amazon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2017 Jul 3;11(7): e0005674.
- Rovira-Vallbona E, Dobaño C, Bardají A, Cisteró P, Romagosa C, Serra-Casas E, Quintó L, Bassat Q, Sigaúque B, Alonso PL, Ordi J, Menéndez C, Mayor A. Transcription of var genes other than var2csa in Plasmodium falciparum parasites infecting Mozambican pregnant women. J Infect Dis, 2011. 204(1): p. 27-35.
