Researcher’s nanoparticle key to new malaria vaccine

A self-assembling nanoparticle designed by a Univ. of Connecticut (UConn) professor is the key component of a potent new malaria vaccine that is showing promise in early tests. For years, scientists trying to develop a malaria vaccine have been stymied by the malaria parasite’s ability to transform itself and “hide” in the liver and red blood cells of an infected person to avoid detection by the immune system. But a novel protein nanoparticle developed by Peter Burkhard, a professor in the Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology, in collaboration with David Lanar, an infectious disease specialist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, has shown to be effective at getting the immune system to attack the most lethal species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, after it enters the body and before it has a chance to hide and aggressively spread. The key to the vaccine’s success lies in the nanoparticle’s perfect icosahedral...