Understanding acquisition and maintenance of immunity to malaria

Malaria is a potentially severe and fatal infection in non-immune individuals. An efficacious vaccine is urgently needed.

Vaccine design is challenged by strain-specific immunity and extensive diversity of many of the potential vaccine targets, as well as how protection can be maintained.

The aim of this project is to improve the understanding the naturally acquired immunity to malaria to guide vaccine development, focusing on antigen diversity and maintenance of immunity.

The project will explore the antigen diversity of highly polymorphic merozoite surface proteins, in relation to immune responses and their role in protection.

A newly developed sequencing method will allow characterization of antigen diversity across geographical areas, and the design of a peptide microarray that will be used to investigate the breadth, magnitude and cross-reactivity of antibody responses.

In addition, monoclonal antibodies will be isolated to investigate whether increasing breadth of antibody responses is a result of increased breadth of individual antibody lineages or acquisition of new antibody specificities.

Maintenance of immunity and memory B cell responses will be studied using a newly developed multiplex B cell FluoroSpot method.

Studies are performed in on longitudinal cohort in malaria endemic areas , as well as travellers and migrants in a non-endemic setting. The overall aim is to contribute to the development of an efficacious multicomponent vaccine against malaria.