The key to a better malaria vaccine Faith Osier
There are 200 million clinical cases
of falciparum malaria
in Africa every year,
resulting in half a million deaths.
I would like to talk to you
about malaria vaccines.
The ones that we have made to date
are simply not good enough.
Why?
We’ve been working at it
for 100 plus years.
When we started, technology was limited.
We could see just a tiny fraction
of what the parasite really looked like.
Today, we are awash with technology,
advanced imaging and omics platforms –
genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics.
These tools have given us a clearer view
of just how complex
the parasite really is.
However, in spite of this,
our approach to vaccine design
has remained pretty rudimentary.
To make a good vaccine,
we must go back to basics
to understand how our bodies
handle this complexity.
People who are frequently
infected with malaria
learn to deal with it.
They get the infection,
but they don’t get ill.
The recipe is encoded in antibodies.
My team went back to our complex parasite,
probed it with samples from Africans
who had overcome malaria
to answer the question:
“What does a successful
antibody response look like?”
We found over 200 proteins,
many of which are not
on the radar for malaria vaccines.
My research community may be missing out
important parts of the parasite.
Until recently, when one had identified
a protein of interest,
they tested whether it might be
important for a vaccine
by conducting a cohort study.
This typically involved about 300
participants in a village in Africa,
whose samples were analyzed to see
whether antibodies to the protein
would predict who got malaria
and who did not.
In the past 30 years,
these studies have tested
a small number of proteins
in relatively few samples
and usually in single locations.
The results have not been consistent.
My team essentially collapsed
30 years of this type of research
into one exciting experiment,
conducted over just three months.
Innovatively, we assembled 10,000 samples
from 15 locations
in seven African countries,
spanning time, age
and the variable intensity
of malaria experienced in Africa.
We used omics intelligence
to prioritize our parasite proteins,
synthesize them in the lab
and in short, recreated
the malaria parasite on a chip.
We did this in Africa,
and we’re very proud of that.
(Applause)
The chip is a small glass slide,
but it gives us incredible power.
We simultaneously gathered data
on over 100 antibody responses.
What are we looking for?
The recipe behind a successful
antibody response,
so that we can predict
what might make a good malaria vaccine.
We’re also trying to figure out
exactly what antibodies
do to the parasite.
How do they kill it?
Do they attack from multiple angles?
Is there synergy?
How much antibody do you need?
Our studies suggest that having
a bit of one antibody won’t be enough.
It might take high
concentrations of antibodies
against multiple parasite proteins.
We’re also learning that antibodies
kill the parasite in multiple ways,
and studying any one of these in isolation
may not adequately reflect reality.
Just like we can now see the parasite
in greater definition,
my team and I are focused
on understanding how our bodies
overcome this complexity.
We believe that this could provide
the breakthroughs that we need
to make malaria history
through vaccination.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheers)
(Applause)
Shoham Arad: OK, how close
are we actually to a malaria vaccine?
Faith Osier: We’re just
at the beginning of a process
to try and understand
what we need to put in the vaccine
before we actually start making it.
So, we’re not really close to the vaccine,
but we’re getting there.
SA: And we’re hopeful.
FO: And we’re very hopeful.
SA: Tell me about SMART,
tell me what does it stand for
and why is it important to you?
FO: So SMART stands for South-South
Malaria Antigen Research Partnership.
The South-South
is referring to us in Africa,
looking sideways to each other
in collaboration,
in contrast to always looking to America
and looking to Europe,
when there is quite
some strength within Africa.
So in SMART,
apart from the goal that we have,
to develop a malaria vaccine,
we are also training African scientists,
because the burden
of disease in Africa is high,
and you need people who will continue
to push the boundaries
in science, in Africa.
SA: Yes, yes, correct.
(Applause)
OK, one last question.
Tell me, I know you
mentioned this a little bit,
but how would things actually change
if there were a malaria vaccine?
FO: We would save
half a million lives every year.
Two hundred million cases.
It’s estimated that malaria costs Africa
12 billion US dollars a year.
So this is economics.
Africa would simply thrive.
SA: OK. Thank you, Faith.
Thank you so much.
(Applause)