Pictured left to right: Professor Michael Good AO, PDG Sandy Doumany OAM, Associate Professor Danielle Stanisic, Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM, Professor Graeme Nimmo RFD, Professor Carolyn Evans, Lisa Hunt.
The Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics was honoured to host Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM and Professor Graeme Nimmo RFD to share the ground-breaking research of their Malaria Vaccine Research Project team.
The Vice-Regal couple were welcomed by Griffith University Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Carolyn Evans; Vice President (Advancement), Marcus Ward; Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Executive Director Professor Paul Clarke, Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Principal Research Leader Professor Michael Good AO, Research Leader Associate Professor Danielle Stanisic and delegates from our Malaria Vaccine Project partners, Rotary District 9640; PDG Sandy Doumany OAM, Sam Doumany AM, and Lisa Hunt.
The Malaria Vaccine Project lead research scientists, Professor Good and Associate Professor Stanisic presented an overview of their break-through malaria vaccine candidate. For the past 10 years Griffith University, in partnership with Rotary, has been developing a vaccine candidate with the potential to provide lifelong protection against all strains of malaria. Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases and remains a major global health issue, claiming over 600,000 lives every year.
“Our work has been endorsed by leading global experts in this field as one of the most significant new vaccine candidates capable of addressing the alarming mortality rates from malaria each year,” says Professor Good. “With the support of key partners, we are poised to commence Phase 1 clinical trials early next year which will test and evaluate a field deployable version of the vaccine candidate in a human clinical trial based at Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Gold Coast Campus.”
“Our malaria vaccine candidate, named PlasProtecT, is a novel approach in a number of ways.” explains Associate Professor Stanisic. “It recognises and destroys the malaria parasites when in the blood-stream – the stage that is responsible for the pathology, morbidity and mortality of malaria and it relies on T cells for protection. It contains more than 5,000 malaria parasite proteins and our pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that it stimulates a broad protection against multiple malaria parasite strains. Additionally, it has been formulated so it can be frozen or freeze-dried into a powder without impacting its efficacy. This makes it easy to transport and is more cost effective when deploying the vaccine to malaria endemic countries.”
Her Excellency and Professor Nimmo were escorted on a tour of the Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World and introduced to the dedicated and passionate team of researchers working tirelessly in the fight against malaria. Her Excellency and Professor Nimmo have vast medical backgrounds. The Governor’s esteemed medical career included the role of Chief Health Officer for Queensland, with responsibility for leading the State’s preventative health and public health agendas, including response to public health emergencies and was appointed the State Health Incident Controller during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Nimmo’s distinguished medical career spans more than four decades, including 19 years as State Director of Microbiology for Pathology Queensland. He currently holds a professorial position in medicine at Griffith University.
“It was a privilege and pleasure to welcome Her Excellency and Professor Nimmo to our Institute,” said Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Executive Director Professor Paul Clarke. “We are appreciative of their keen interest in our malaria research and we were proud to showcase the world-leading expertise and cutting-edge research of our Malaria Vaccine Project Team.”
Over the past decade, transformational philanthropic investment, government backing, competitive grant funding and the unwavering support from industry and the community have accelerated the research development and translational impact of our malaria vaccine candidate – a collaborative investment in the future of global health.
