As a Clinical Research Fellow with the Draper group, I have led a wide range of malaria vaccine trials in the UK and across Africa, from first-in-human UK studies of new blood-stage vaccine candidates to the Phase IIb efficacy trial of the most advanced blood-stage vaccine candidate, RH5.1, in Burkinabe children.
I have now been awarded a Medical Research Council funded Clinical Research Training Fellowship to transition from the clinic to the lab to undertake my PhD. Here, I am utilising samples from my trials to investigate the human antibody responses to these new vaccines. My project has 3 aims:
- To assess whether a rationally designed vaccine can induce a superior immune response (c.f. RH5.1) in humans and hence is more likely to be efficacious;
- To explore whether non-IgG mechanisms can mediate anti-parasitic activity, providing a potential avenue for future exploitation; and
- To examine whether differing parasite strains may affect vaccine efficacy.
These data are crucial to the successful development of an effective blood-stage malaria vaccine and to guide its onward clinical testing in sub-Saharan Africa. Building on this, I am continuing to lead the set-up of Phase Ib/IIb African trials of these new vaccines, both alone and as part of a next generation multi-stage malaria vaccine.
