Griffith University has been successful in securing a prestigious National Institute of Health (NIH) R01 grant to support malaria vaccine research.
Professor Bernd Rehm, Director of the Centre for Cell Factories and Biopolymers at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, is leading the research team which has developed a novel biopolymer conjugate vaccine.
“The vaccine not only prevents infection but also induces antibodies which block transmission by mosquitoes,” Professor Rehm said.
“The vaccine is ambient temperature stable and can be cost-effectively produced at large scale which makes it an ideal malaria vaccine candidate.”
The funding will help the team expand upon the innovative dual-stage vaccine by incorporating additional antigens to develop a comprehensive multistage malaria vaccine.
The achievement would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of PhD candidate Nivethika Sivakumaran who played a pivotal role in developing and testing vaccine prototypes, with the support of Dr Shuxiong Chen.
The malaria vaccine research is a collaborative effort with Johns Hopkins University including Professor Fidel Zavala, who conducted malaria challenge studies, and Associate Professor Abhai Tripathi, who evaluated transmission-blocking activity in mosquitoes.
The Griffith team will collaborate with Dr Carole Long from the NIH’s Laboratory of Malaria and Vector research who will lead critical experiments assessing vaccine performance.
Executive Director of the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Paul Clarke, said: “I’m delighted Professor Rehm has won this significant grant award, one which exemplifies the Institute’s commitment to high impact translational science.”
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Bernd Rehm
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