WEHI Wednesday Seminar hosted by Associate Professor Chris Tonkin

Justin Boddey PhD

Associate Professor | Laboratory Head | NHMRC Leadership Investigator – Infection and Global Health division, WEHI

Chemovaccination: combining parasite infection with a novel antimalarial to advance malaria control

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIWednesday

Including Q&A session
 

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, starts when sporozoites injected by a mosquito invade liver cells, multiplying into merozoites over 7 days, which burst into the bloodstream to cause symptomatic infection. Traditional subunit vaccines offer limited protection against all Plasmodium strains and species. Whole sporozoite vaccines that arrest malaria parasites at the late liver stage induce robust CD8⁺ T cell and antibody responses by exposing the immune system to diverse antigens, showing superior efficacy in early trials. However, scaling and intravenous administration remain key challenges.

This seminar highlights "chemovaccination", a novel approach using a first-in-class antimalarial drug with activity at the late liver stage that is under clinical development by WEHI and Merck Sharpe & Dohme (West Point, USA). This drug class targets two essential aspartyl proteases that are conserved in all Plasmodium species. The chemovaccination approach mimics whole sporozoite vaccine protection but uses chemoprevention that kills diverse Plasmodium strains and species for broader efficacy.

All welcome!