If you want to know more about the background to the BIO-004 trial, you can check out our earlier work on the VAC063 and VAC069 studies. These clinical trials tested candidate malaria vaccines in volunteers who underwent controlled human malaria infection. On the side, we were able to use samples from these trials to study damaging immune responses to malaria and to learn which parts of the immune response had to be switched off to promote health.
This was all made easier because we were able to compare the immune response to Plasmodium falciparum (the most deadly malaria parasite) with Plasmodium vivax (which causes high fever but not severe disease). You can watch Phil explain these trials, their results and what it all means during his Keynote Lecture at the EMBL Malaria Conference (BioMalPar).
And just last month, Wiebke was presenting our very latest data on controlled human malaria infection at the MAM Conference in Australia. We’ll get you up to speed with what we said, what we heard and what we saw next month. If you’re keen to get a sneak-peak, check out our Instagram : )