A new study has shown that Dragonfly, a low-cost, rapid, molecular testing platform is successfully able to detect asymptomatic malaria infections.
The test, which requires only a capillary blood sample obtained from a simple finger prick, has demonstrated the ability to identify previously undetectable asymptomatic malaria infections, cases that often go unnoticed by point-of-care systems and fuel malaria’s spread across Africa.
The positive findings, published in Nature Communications, show that this field-deployable molecular platform meets the performance criteria proposed for community-level screening. It operates without the need for extensive laboratory equipment or infrastructure and can deliver results in as little as 45 minutes.
Global health efforts to combat malaria continue to be hampered by asymptomatic carriers, who often sustain ongoing malaria transmission. Malaria remains one of the leading causes of preventable deaths, with around 95% of all fatalities occurring in Africa.
The study shows that this rapid, portable molecular platform offers a sensitive and scalable approach to support future test-and-treat strategies.
The Dragonfly test, based on technology developed at Imperial College London and its spinout ProtonDx, was developed and evaluated by a global collaboration including the MRC Unit The Gambia and the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro in Burkina Faso.
Professor Aubrey Cunnington, from Imperial’s Department of Infectious Disease, said: "This is the first time that a diagnostic test for use outside of a laboratory setting has proven sensitive enough to detect low level malaria parasite infections in people who don’t have any symptoms. These people are the main source of malaria transmission. Until now, no test has been able to detect enough of these infected people to make this a viable proposition, but the Dragonfly test now makes this possible."
The Dragonfly platform was tested using capillary blood samples obtained via simple finger prick. High-purity nucleic acids were extracted and analysed for the presence of pan-Plasmodium to confirm malaria infection, demonstrating performance comparable to laboratory-based methods. Results from the study show:
- High sensitivity: Dragonfly detected >95% of all malaria infections, including 95% of cases where parasite levels were too low to be detected by using a microscope or lateral-flow devices
- High specificity: it correctly identified 96.8% of uninfected samples, minimising false positives
- Low limit of detection (LOD): it achieved a detection limit of 0.6 parasites/μL of capillary blood, meeting Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) criteria for community-level screening
- Rapid molecular result: a sample-to-result time of under 45 minutes.
This field-deployable molecular method can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost of other platforms. Its compact, battery-operated design makes it particularly suitable for deployment in communities with limited access to laboratory facilities.
ProtonDx co-founder Dr Jesus Rodriguez-Manzano, who is also an Associate Professor at Imperial College and the last author and Technology Development Lead for the project, said: "The technology delivered represents a game changer for malaria control efforts. This research would not have been possible without the collaborative nature and all the organisations that took part in this study."
The team is already working closely with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to explore opportunities with local manufacturers to ensure that production and scale-up can be rooted in local capacity for effective future deployment in Africa.
This pivotal work was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) global health research funding, the Wellcome Trust CAMO-Net programme, the Fleming Initiative, the Jameel Fund for Infectious Disease Research and Innovation, and the Centre of Defence Pathology and jHub Med at the UK Ministry of Defence.
ProtonDx is a spinout from Imperial College London, founded in 2020 by Dr Jesus Rodriguez Manzano, Professor Pantelis Georgiou, and Dr Nicolas Moser. Its core technology builds on several years of innovative research in diagnostics and sample extractions, fueled by unique collaborations between engineering, medicine, and molecular biology.
- Rakotomalala Robinson D, Pennisi I, Cavuto ML, et al. Sensitive near point-of-care detection of asymptomatic and submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections in African endemic countries. Nat Commun. 2025;16(1):8925. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-64027-4