SBIR-STTR Award

Plasmodium falciparum is the most fatal species of the malaria protozoan parasite infecting humans The ability to control disease or outbreaks of Pfalciparum malaria with a vaccine has eluded investigators for decades Innovative adjuvants for malaria vaccines are urgently needed to provide long lasting immune responses and high levels of inhibitory antibodies We propose to develop a novel malaria vaccine candidate with outer membrane vesicles OMVs derived from a detoxified strain of Escherichia coli which we have shown to be highly effective for multiple strains of influenza in both mice and ferrets We propose to compare the potency of the OMVs with standard adjuvants by measuring cellular and antibody responses including parasite development and to initiate the work required for scale up process development of the rOMV platformTo induce long lived immune responses we also propose to formulate the rOMVs with poly lactide co glycolide PLGA which we have found works well in influenza models We propose to measure immune responses one year after immunization After successfully delivering an effective transmission blocking vaccine candidate for malaria we will propose additional formulation and analytical work to develop a thermostable vaccine product