Designing a new vaccine against malaria

Miguel Prudêncio

  • PROJECT LEADER

    Miguel Prudêncio

  • HOST ORGANIZATION,
    COUNTRY

    Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal

  • DESCRIPTION

    Malaria is the most prevalent parasitic disease in the world, especially in the poorest regions of the planet. A vaccine is key to the prevention and elimination of this epidemic, in accordance with the United Nations’ goals.

    One of the most successful approaches to malaria vaccination is based on attenuated sporozoites, the parasite forms that are injected by mosquitoes and infect human hosts. However, existing sporozoite-based vaccination approaches are faced with important challenges, including their limited scope of action.

    The project will develop and pre-clinically characterize novel vaccine candidates against the two deadliest human malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, based on a new technology that employs genetically modified rodent malaria parasites as immunization agents, to provide new malaria prevention strategies.

  • PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

    • Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, Netherlands

    • U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 (NAMRU6), United States of America

  • PROJECT TITLE

    Whole-organism vaccines against P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria with enhanced efficacy and scope

  • BUDGET

    €997,453.50