Programmed proteins may make malaria vaccine possible

A malaria vaccine based on stabilized proteins could be used in tropical places where there is no refrigeration. Despite decades of malaria research, the disease still afflicts hundreds of millions and kills around half a million people each year – most of them children in tropical regions. The best deterrent would be a vaccine composed of some of the parasite’s own proteins. However, those proteins identified as most promising for a malaria vaccine are unstable at tropical temperatures and require complicated, expensive cellular systems to produce them in large quantities. Yet the vaccines are most needed in areas where refrigeration is lacking and funds to buy vaccines are scarce. -- More...