It’s 2023 and malaria is spiralling out of control. The world’s scientists have tried, and failed, to keep this deadliest of diseases in check.

This dire, albeit fictitious, scenario is explored in The World If... Malaria Drugs Stop Working, a 15-minute production by The Economist Films.

It highlights how a groundbreaking new approach is needed urgently to win the battle against rapidly-emerging drug-resistant strains of the disease, which kills some 600,000 people a year.

The film has been endorsed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose charity foundation has already ploughed more than $500 million into the fight against malaria and other tropical illnesses.

That revolutionary research is being carried out by MediSieve, founded by Dr George Frodsham, who at the age of 28 has a string of qualifiations behind him.

Aided by a couple of colleagues, he is working from the attic of his home in the centre of Ashford, with laboratory facilities provided by his former university, University College London (UCL).

His company is developing a magnetic filter device that captures and removes red blood cells infected with malaria. Though the process has been attempted elsewhere before, the research got nowhere. Dr Frodsham is quietly confident.

“It’s early days yet, but we hope to try it on a patient for the first time next year and then do clinical trials around the world in 2017,” he said.

“Initially it will be hospital-based – we have to start somewhere – but in the longer term we are hoping to develop a portable version that can be used in remote rural locations, in Africa, for example, where there may be no electricity.

“It’s early days yet, but we hope to try it on a patient for the first time next year and then do clinical trials around the world in 2017...” - Dr George Frodsham

“It is important the treatment is both effective and quick-acting.”

Dr Frodsham’s malaria treatment method is similar to dialysis, where a patient’s blood is continuously circulated through a magnetic filter device using an external blood loop.

Red blood cells infected with a malaria parasite have magnetic properties, which means they are captured in the filter. The healthy blood returns to the patient unharmed.

The MediSieve device could reduce a child’s infection by 90% in just three and a half hours. It comes at a time when scientists are increasingly concerned about drug-resistant strains of malaria.

Today, three of the five strains of the disease that affect humans can resist anti-malarials – and they’re spreading across Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma).

Dr Frodsham said: “If you watch The World If… film, you see the havoc a malaria epidemic would cause. It also brings home the importance of drug-free treatments that can combat resistant strains.

“Our device offers an effective, low-cost way to treat malaria. It could also hold the key for tackling other diseases at risk of drug resistance.”

MediSieve, a spin-out company from UCL, was established by Dr Frodsham in 2015 to develop a technology he invented while studying for his PhD at UCL.

“Our device offers an effective, low-cost way to treat malaria. It could also hold the key for tackling other diseases at risk of drug resistance...” - Dr George Frodsham

The company recently closed a £350,000 seed round with private investors to fund a clinical prototype and initial safety trials for the magnetic blood filter device.

Dr Frodsham has a PhD in biochemical engineering from UCL, where he developed the magnetic blood filter.

He was awarded a BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2014 after completing the Entrepreneurship Summer School programme at the London Business School.

He is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and a runner-up in its ERA Foundation Entrepreneur’s Award.

Before studying for his PhD, Dr Frodsham received a first-class bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy from King’s College London, followed by a distinction in his master’s in nanotechnology from UCL.

He also has an English/French bilingual International Baccalaureate degree.

For more information, visit www.medisieve.com.