Vaccine collaboration to block malaria transmission

ARTES Biotechnology and the Burnet Institute are collaborating to develop a new type of malaria vaccine in a project funded by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). The project will focus on strategies to produce vaccines that can block the transmission of malaria infection from mosquitoes to people.

More than 600,000 people die of malaria each year, and there is currently no vaccine approved for use. The new project will utilise novel technology developed at the Burnet Institute, which has been adapted by ARTES for vaccine production.

Purified vaccine antigens (Pfs25 and Pfs230) will be produced as virus-like particles (VLPs, a type of nanoparticle) for testing in laboratory studies. The VLPs will be taken up by immune cells to prime and prepare the immune system to fight malaria.

“One of the challenges for malaria is how to best make vaccines in order to stimulate a strong and effective immune response and boost the immune system to fight malaria infections,” explained Professor James Beeson, Burnet’s co-head of the Centre for Biomedical Research.

Vaccines that interrupt the transmission of malaria aim to protect whole populations. MVI Director Ashley J Birkett said, “At MVI, we think that transmission-blocking vaccines could play a significant role in the eventual eradication of malaria.”