Malaria Vaccine Development Unit (mvdu)

Miller, Louis

Abstract

Malaria Vaccine Development Unit (MVDU) General Description: The Malaria Vaccine Development Unit (MVDU) headed by Dr. Louis Miller is a new NIAID initiative to respond to the global need for vaccines against malaria. This effort has been given additional impetus during the past year by the attention focused on this issue by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, NIAID, and by support for malaria announced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The MVDU opened officially on May 6 at a ceremony hosted by Dr. Anthony Fauci. We are beginning to produce cGMP proteins and including formulations for vaccine trials that should start next year. The MVDU is focusing primarily on recombinant proteins derived from asexual blood stages and sexual stages of malaria parasite development. Immunity to the blood stages would primarily be designed to reduce pathology associated with malaria while immunity to the sexual stages would be designed to reduce transmission via the mosquito vector and eliminate the infection in certain parts of the world where transmission is low. To accomplish these goals, the MVDU has facilities for protein expression in a variety of recombinant systems as well as subsequent purification and analysis. The process for some proteins has been completed, and they are produced for human trials. The process development and production of clinical grade material is now a priority. The whole unit is now converted to an industrial type lab with the institution of industrial type control on quality. We are now strengthening the component for clinical trials both in the US and in Mali.

Funding Agency

• Agency: National Institute of Health (NIH)
• Institute: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• Type: Intramural Research (Z01)
• Project #: 1Z01AI000727-07
• Application #: 6503207
• Study Section: (LPD)
• Support Year: 7
• Fiscal Year: 2001

Institution

• Name: Niaid Extramural Activities
• Country: United States

Publications

Collins, William E; Barnwell, John W; Sullivan, Joann S et al. (2006) Assessment of transmission-blocking activity of candidate Pvs25 vaccine using gametocytes from chimpanzees. Am J Trop Med Hyg 74:215-21

Tsai, Chiawei W; Duggan, Peter F; Shimp Jr, Richard L et al. (2006) Overproduction of Pichia pastoris or Plasmodium falciparum protein disulfide isomerase affects expression, folding and O-linked glycosylation of a malaria vaccine candidate expressed in P. pastoris. J Biotechnol 121:458-70

Makobongo, Morris O; Keegan, Brian; Long, Carole A et al. (2006) Immunization of Aotus monkeys with recombinant cysteine-rich interdomain region 1 alpha protects against severe disease during Plasmodium falciparum reinfection. J Infect Dis 193:731-40

Wille-Reece, Ulrike; Flynn, Barbara J; Lore, Karin et al. (2006) Toll-like receptor agonists influence the magnitude and quality of memory T cell responses after prime-boost immunization in nonhuman primates. J Exp Med 203:1249-58

Giersing, Birgitte K; Dubovsky, Filip; Saul, Allan et al. (2006) Potency assay design for adjuvanted recombinant proteins as malaria vaccines. Vaccine 24:4264-70

Trinh, Loc; Phue, Je-Nie; Jaluria, Pratik et al. (2006) Screen-less expanded bed column: new approach for the recovery and purification of a malaria transmission blocking vaccine candidate from Pichia pastoris. Biotechnol Lett 28:951-8

Saxena, Ajay K; Singh, Kavita; Su, Hua-Poo et al. (2006) The essential mosquito-stage P25 and P28 proteins from Plasmodium form tile-like triangular prisms. Nat Struct Mol Biol 13:90-1

Mullen, Gregory E D; Giersing, Birgitte K; Ajose-Popoola, Olubunmi et al. (2006) Enhancement of functional antibody responses to AMA1-C1/Alhydrogel, a Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine, with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide. Vaccine 24:2497-505

Woehlbier, Ute; Epp, Christian; Kauth, Christian W et al. (2006) Analysis of antibodies directed against merozoite surface protein 1 of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Infect Immun 74:1313-22

Shimp Jr, Richard L; Martin, Laura B; Zhang, Yanling et al. (2006) Production and characterization of clinical grade Escherichia coli derived Plasmodium falciparum 42 kDa merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1(42)) in the absence of an affinity tag. Protein Expr Purif 50:58-67