Clinical and Immunological Evaluation of T cell- and Antibody-Inducing Viral Vector Vaccines against Blood-Stage Malar

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Malaria remains a huge public health problem in the developing world. The development of an effective vaccine remains an important but elusive goal. Malaria is caused by a parasite that first infects the liver before moving into the blood where it causes disease. A few vaccines have been developed recently that can kill some parasites in the liver, however, there is still no vaccine that can kill parasites in the blood.This research will test a new vaccine technology against the parasites in the blood. These vaccines, developed by scientists at the Jenner Institute, Oxford University, use viruses that are genetically engineered to look like malaria parasites. The work will test the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines in volunteers in clinical trials in Oxford, and importantly also study the immune responses produced by them. Scientists can then attempt to figure out which immune responses are killing the parasites. This research will also assess how malaria infection can interfere with immune responses in humans in both the UK and Africa. It is extremely important to understand these interactions between malaria parasites and the human immune system, because we can use this information to help design better vaccines in the future.