In October 2020, a group of scientists led by James Collins reported a breakthrough field-level optimized malaria assay capable of species-specifically detecting the four most pathogenic Plasmodium species: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae (even P. falciparum with mutated/deleted hrp2 and hrp3 genes). Here, HDGFL2 is linked to malaria.