Immunity to malaria: Obstacles and opportunities for improved vaccines targeting the asexual blood stages of Plasmodium falciparum parasites

project summary

Malaria remains a leading cause of infectious disease suffering. Every year, more than 200 million people are infected, and more than 500,000 of them die. Almost all severe and fatal cases are caused by just one of the several parasite species that can cause the disease. These severe cases are highly concentrated among children and pregnant women in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, efficacious vaccines are needed to make eradication of malaria feasible. Malaria eradication in turn is critical to reaching several of the Sustainable Development Goals. Although two malaria vaccines have already been licensed and are currently being rolled out in Africa, neither is likely to induce the solid and durable protection required. There is therefore an urgent need for better malaria vaccines.
IMOVACAS is designed to address key challenges to the development of alternative malaria vaccines. These vaccines target the blood stage of the infection, which is responsible for all the disease manifestations of malaria. Firstly, we will assess the impact of the diversity of the parasite molecules to be targeted by these vaccines. Secondly, we will investigate the role of the complement system, which is a component of the immune system that is increasingly coming into focus as a central component of immune protection from malaria. Lastly, we will study another, hitherto largely ignored, mechanism of killing malaria-infected cells (called ADCC) that we have recently demonstrated to be of key importance to the immune system’s control of the disease. The above challenges will be addressed in four concurrent PhD projects, each conducted by a Ghanaian scientist selected following a competitive call and supervised by experienced project scientists from Ghana and Denmark.
IMOVACAS builds on insights achieved and research leads gained from almost three decades of collaborative research between University of Ghana and University of Copenhagen. Several of the scientists involved in IMOVACAS have participated in much of or all this work, and the project therefore rests on a very solid platform of experience and mutual trust and learning. The team is complemented by younger scientists, who have been trained as part of our collaboration. As we conduct the planned cutting-edge research, we will complete the transition of full administrative and scientific leadership of our collaboration from Denmark to Ghana.