The key to a better malaria vaccine
1,668,381 views | Faith Osier • TED2018
The malaria vaccine was invented more than a century ago -- yet each year, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease. How can we improve this vital vaccine? In this informative talk, immunologist and TED Fellow Faith Osier shows how she's combining cutting-edge technology with century-old insights in the hopes of creating a new vaccine that eradicates malaria once and for all.
The malaria vaccine was invented more than a century ago -- yet each year, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease. How can we improve this vital vaccine? In this informative talk, immunologist and TED Fellow Faith Osier shows how she's combining cutting-edge technology with century-old insights in the hopes of creating a new vaccine that eradicates malaria once and for all.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Learn more about South-South Malaria Antigen Research Partnership Partnership (SMART).
About the speaker
Faith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines.
D. Bagster Wilson | Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1936 | Article
"Rural hyper-endemic malaria in Tanganyika Territory"
For history lovers: this paper illustrates beautifully that humans do acquire immunity to malaria and, importantly, that this has been known for almost 100 years. I love the old-fashioned scientific language, the rigor and the hand-drawn graphs (see figures 2 and 3).
S. Cohen, et al. | Nature, 1961 | Article
"Gamma-Globulin and Acquired Immunity to Human Malaria"
For antibody lovers: an absolute classic! This study shows that antibodies taken from adults who had experienced malaria many times could actually "cure" malaria in sick children. A golden oldie and a cornerstone of my research. (Unfortunately not freely available online.)
K. Marsh, et al. | Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1989 | Article
"Antibodies to blood stage antigens of Plasmodium falciparum in rural Gambians and their relation to protection against infection"
One of the first illustrations of the power of the prospective cohort study design I use in my research. Here, an analysis of sickle cell trait and bed net use predicts, as expected, a lower risk of developing malaria. Only one of the six immune measures tested at the time performed comparably. Enjoy the caution applied to the interpretation of these results in the discussion.
F. Ellis McKenzie, et al. | Advances in Parasitology, 2008 | Article
"Strain Theory of Malaria: The First 50 Years"
Not for the fainthearted! Did you know that malaria fevers were used to treat syphilis back in the day? A lovely historical perspective on the concept of malaria "strains." Following infection with a particular strain, an individual developed fever that was good for treating syphilis. However, if re-infected a number of times with the same "strain," the individual developed resistance, and fever was not induced.
M.J. Gardner | Nature, 2002 | Article
"Genome sequence of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum"
Landmark paper for malaria researchers: the first publication of the full genome of Plasmodium falciparum. In essence, we now know all the 5000-plus proteins that the malaria parasite contains. Our "simple" task is to figure out which of these induce protective immunity.
Faith H. A. Osier, et al. | Infection and Immunity, 2008 | Article
"Breadth and Magnitude of Antibody Responses to Multiple Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Antigens Are Associated with Protection from Clinical Malaria"
A home-grown classic: my colleagues and I show that immunity against malaria is associated with the breadth (number) and magnitude of antibody responses against specific parasite proteins.
Faith H. A. Osier, et al. | Science Translational Medicine, 2008 | Article
"New antigens for multi-component blood-stage vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum malaria"
Another home-grown classic: we expand our panel of parasite proteins and identify combinations with potential for new vaccines.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Learn more about South-South Malaria Antigen Research Partnership Partnership (SMART).