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GHIT Fund allocates $3.2 million for malaria vaccine development
The University of Florida, along with partners in the United States and Japan, received a $3.2 million grant from the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund to continue the development of a new malaria vaccine.
“This funding support puts the vaccine back in the process development and vaccine production pipeline with an eye on getting to first-in-human trials in a few more years,” Rhoel Dinglasan, PhD, MPH, MPhil, associate professor of infectious diseases at University of Florida’s college of veterinary medicine and Emerging Pathogens Institute, said in the press release.
Dinglasan and colleagues developed a transmission-blocking vaccine that generates antibodies in humans to the protein alanyl aminopeptidase N, or AnAPN1, found in the gut of the female Anopheles mosquito. According to the release, the Plasmodium parasite needs the AnAPN1 protein to infect the mosquito vector.
The grant from the GHIT Fund will allow Dinglasan and his team to further develop the vaccine, taking it from the experimental stage to human trials and finally to a clinical treatment.
“This vaccine can help stamp out malaria globally,” said Dinglasan in the release. – by Marley Ghizzone
Disclosures: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.