Malcolm Molyneux

Malcom Molyneux earnt degrees in natural science and medicine from the University of Cambridge, and graduated in 1967. He then attended Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry for his medical training. He subsequently completely a PhD on the viruses and liver disease in Malawi.

In 2019, he was given an honorary doctorate of science by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

After graduating, Molyneux moved to Malawi and in 1974 and began work as a doctor in St Luke's Hospital, Malosa. After a year, he transferred and started to work as a consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1976. Molyneux left Malawi in 1984 and moved back to England after being invited by Herbert Michael Gilles to work a lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.{{Cite journal |last=Watts |first=Geoff |date=January 2022 |title=Malcolm Edward Molyneux |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673621027410 |journal=The Lancet |language=en |volume=399 |issue=10320 |pages=138 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02741-0}} There he worked research on malaria, especially cerebral malaria in children, and helped to establish a research ward connected to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital's paediatric department in 1990. He and fellow researchers Terrie Taylor and Jack Wirima developed the Blantyre coma scale, a scale to assess the severity of comas induced by malaria in children.{{Cite journal |last=Muula |first=Adamson |date=2021-12-22 |title=In memoriam: Professor Malcolm Molyneux (1943- 2021) |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8893001/ |journal=Malawi Medical Journal |language=en |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=229 |doi=10.4314/mmj.v33i4.1 |issn=1995-7262 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250202152508/https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8893001/ |archive-date=2025-02-02|pmc=8893001 }}

In 1991, Molyneaux was invited to help set up the University of Malawi College of Medicine, whose creation he had recommended, alongside Hetherwick Ntaba and Peter Chimimba, in 1985. In 1995, he moved back to Malawi and began work as the director of the newly-established Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust. In 1998 he was elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.{{Cite web |title=Fellow: Professor Malcolm Molyneux OBE FMedSci |url=https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Malcolm%20Edward-Molyneux-0033z00002qIIQuAAO |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118204916/https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Malcolm%20Edward-Molyneux-0033z00002qIIQuAAO |archive-date=2021-11-18 |website=Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)}} In 2006, he was awarded an OBE for his work in Malawi healthcare.{{Cite news |date=2006-12-30 |title=New Year Honours List |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-new-year-honours-lis/168012073/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=The Daily Telegraph |pages=29}} He retired the next year and was given the title of Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Apart from his work in research medicine, Molyneaux also founded Medical Quarterly, later the Malawi Medical Journal, in 1976,{{Cite journal |last=Broadhead |first=Robert L. |date=2009-04-01 |title=Malcolm Molyneux: beyond the scientist |url=https://academic.oup.com/trstmh/article-abstract/103/Supplement_1/S23/1908280?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |volume=103 |issue=Supplement_1 |pages=S23–S25 |doi=10.1016/j.trstmh.2009.02.001 |issn=0035-9203|url-access=subscription }} and worked there as an editor chief of the from 1980 to 1984, and as editor of the Tropical Doctor from 1985 to 1992. He worked for The Lancet as an ombudsman, and took part on World Health Organization committees and the Malaria Control Programme in Malawi. Additionally, he was the chairman of a committee overseeing the safety the then-untested malaria vaccine RTS,S.{{Cite journal |last=Kapp |first=Clare |date=November 2008 |title=Malcolm and Elizabeth Molyneux: making better health in Malawi |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673608617985 |journal=The Lancet |language=en |volume=372 |issue=9653 |pages=1873 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61798-5}} In 1995, he wrote chapters on malaria, fevers, amoebiasis, giardiasis, balantidiasis, anaemia, and flukes for the fourth edition of Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine.{{Cite journal |last=Cook |first=G.C. |date=September 1995 |title=Lecture notes on tropical medicine, 4th edition |url=https://academic.oup.com/trstmh/article-lookup/doi/10.1016/0035-9203(95)90118-3 |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |language=en |volume=89 |issue=5 |pages=578 |doi=10.1016/0035-9203(95)90118-3|url-access=subscription }} For the fifth edition, he wrote the chapter "Malaria".

In 2009, he was awarded the Sir Rickard Christophers Medal.

Malcolm Edward Molyneux was born on 20 November 1943{{Cite web |title=Malcolm Edward Molyneux |url=https://history.rcp.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/malcolm-edward-molyneux |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Royal College of Physicians}} in the Belgian Congo to missionaries Colin and Joyce ({{Nee|Gammon}}) Molyneux. As a child he attended the Sakeji School, a boarding school in what was then Northern Rhodesia, but at the age of 13 went to board at Eltham College in London. While studying at Barts, Molyneaux met his future wife, Elizabeth Neech. They married in 1969 and, by 1974, had two children.

Molyneaux was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in the 1990s and with aggressive lymphoma in 2013. He moved back to Liverpool in 2015, where he died on 16 November 2021 at the age of 77.{{Cite journal |last=Bagcchi |first=Sanjeet |date=2022-02-01 |title=Malcolm Molyneux |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00018-4/fulltext |journal=The Lancet Infectious Diseases |language=English |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=177 |doi=10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00018-4 |issn=1473-3099}}{{Cite news |last=Solomon |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Solomon (neurologist) |last2=Mwandumba |first2=Henry |author-link2=Henry Mwandumba |date=2021-12-02 |title=Malcolm Molyneux obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/dec/02/malcolm-molyneux-obituary |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} At the time of his death he had three children and one grandchild.

• {{Cite book |title=Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine |title-link=Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine |publisher=Blackwell Scientific |editor-last=Bell |editor-first=Dion R. |edition=4th}}
• {{Cite book |title=Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine |title-link=Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine |publisher=Blackwell Scientific |year=2004 |editor-last=Beeching |editor-first=Nick |edition=5th |chapter=Malaria |editor-last2=Gill |editor-first2=Geoff}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Molyneux |first=Malcolm |last2=Taylor |first2=Terrie |last3=Wirima |first3=J.J. |last4=Borgsteinj |first4=A. |date=May 1989 |title=Clinical Features and Prognostic Indicators in Paediatric Cerebral Malaria: A Study of 131 Comatose Malawian Children |url=https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/71/2/441/1542871/Clinical-Features-and-Prognostic-Indicators-in |journal=QJM: An International Journal of Medicine |language=en |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=441–459 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.qjmed.a068338 |issn=1460-2393|url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Molyneux |first=M.E. |last2=Engelmann |first2=H. |last3=Taylor |first3=Terrie E. |last4=Wirima |first4=Jack J. |last5=Aderka |first5=Dan |last6=Wallach |first6=David |last7=Grau |first7=Georges E. |date=November 1993 |title=Circulating plasma receptors for tumour necrosis factor in Malawian children with severe falciparum malaria |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1043466605800110 |journal=Cytokine |language=en |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=604–609 |doi=10.1016/S1043-4666(05)80011-0|url-access=subscription }}

• 1998: Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
• 2006: Order of the British Empire
• 2009: Sir Rickard Christophers Medal

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Category:2021 deaths

Category:1943 births

Category:Academics of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Malariologists

Category:20th-century British scientists

Category:21st-century British scientists

Category:20th-century British medical doctors