Development of a Multi-Antigen Malaria Vaccine targeting Plasmodium Pre-Erythrocytic Stages – DeepMAGMA

Despite being preventable, diagnosable and treatable, malaria is still responsible by the highest number of deaths caused by vector-borne diseases. Recently, vaccines targeting sporozoites displayed elevate efficacy against clinical malaria, but more efficient vaccine are needed to block transmission and eliminate malaria in high-transmission settings.
Here, using a malaria rodent model and lentiviral vaccination, we propose to identify novel conserved protective antigens recognized by CD8 T cells to combine them with protective antigens already down-selected by our team and improve efficacy of our multi-antigen experimental malaria vaccine. Moreover, we propose to develop methods to select the most promisor cognate orthologs of human-infecting parasites based on the identification and recognition of antigens on the surface of infected hepatocytes. We therefore intend to deliver a combination of antigens capable of eliciting a lasting sterilizing immunity against sporozoite infection covering a broad set of major histocompatibility complex class I haplotypes