Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), #USAID Strike New Collaboration for #Malaria #Vaccine Development
The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) today announced a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on support of a collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) for the development of a new vaccine against malaria. The collaboration is for the development of a novel malaria vaccine, which combines WRAIR’s malaria antigen CelTOS with IDRI’s potent GLA-SE adjuvant.
Preclinical studies to date have shown that the combination of CelTOS and GLA-SE in a vaccine candidate produces potent immune responses in small animals, resulting in a protective immune response during the infectious mosquito-stage of malaria parasites.
"The collaboration with WRAIR illustrates again the broad utility of GLA-SE as a vaccine adjuvant," Dr. Steven G. Reed, IDRI’s Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer, stated. "We are very excited to be moving this important project ahead and particularly pleased with the validating interest from USAID."
Good luck to them and let’s hope they are successful, since although there has been great progress in combating malaria, the disease still kills 1 in 5 children in Africa.
