Back in March, Land Rover announced that a
customized Discovery SUV would embark on an eight-week humanitarian expedition
to sub-Saharan Africa as part of the Mobile Malaria Project, with three Oxford
University researchers onboard.
Now, the British automaker has announced that the
vehicle has covered 7,350 km across Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and
Kenya, successfully testing the latest portable genetic sequencing technology
in remote locations for the first time.
The bespoke SUV was equipped with a freezer to
safely store supplies, a custom load space configuration system for the team’s
equipment, plus an on-board expedition battery. Other mods included the
purpose-built dual sun awning, rescue kit, winch, sand/mud tracks, roof rack
and LED night lamps.
Over the course of their two month trip, the team
proved that it’s possible to train people to use technology and to generate
information about the amount of resistance in a population from genetic data
using only portable equipment (carried in the Discovery). In turn, this proved
the value of regional sequencing and that such processes are no longer
restricted to large centralized laboratories.
