Malaria Vaccine: AMA1-rEPA

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The Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology (LMIV), formerly The Malaria Vaccine Development Branch (MVDB), is an NIAID initiative working in close collaboration with DMID to respond to the global need for vaccines against malaria. The mission of the LMIV is to discover and develop malaria vaccines through fundamental and clinical research in immunobiology and vaccinology, including investigations of malaria pathogenesis in the context of host immune responses. In support of this mission, the LMIV will develop new assays and animal models to assess vaccine candidates. LMIV will maintain a flexible infrastructure to permit rapid development and evaluation of new malaria vaccine candidates. An asexual blood-stage vaccine will elicit immune responses capable of either destroying malaria parasites in the blood stream or inhibiting parasites from infecting red blood cells. In either case, the net effect is to reduce or prevent burden of parasites and hence decrease the incidence, severity, or the complications of disease. Such a vaccine would target blood-stage parasite proteins since these antigens are abundantly expressed by parasites during persistent infections. It would act to prime the immune system for subsequent infection in infants or it would boost already present, yet weak, natural immunity in young children. Previously we have demonstrated that chemical conjugation of a malaria antigen to a carrier protein greatly increased immunogenicity and response longevity of the malaria antigen in several animal species, including rhesus monkeys. It is anticipated that conjugating AMA1 to recombinant exoprotein A (rEPA) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa would increase immunogenicity of AMA1.