Malaria Vaccines for the World conference
MVI co-sponsored the first international conference on Malaria Vaccines for
the World (MVW). The conference aimed to offer researchers a fresh new
forum to discuss the current status of new malaria vaccine initiatives, vaccine
candidates and clinical trials. MVW 2007 focused attention on ‘Vaccine
Issues’ in relation to Malaria as a worldwide disease. The MVW 2007
scientific program included keynote lectures, contributed papers and poster
presentations emphasising all aspects of malaria vaccines. Several representatives
of MVI participated in the conference, held at the Royal Society of Medicine
in London, September 17–19.
MVI Director Dr.
Christian Loucq announced recent developments at MVI and moderated
a session on design and testing of malaria vaccines.
Dr. John McNeil, Director, Research and Development, presented MVI’s
research and development strategy, including plans for the program’s
vaccine candidate portfolio and investments in the development of assessment
tools to address challenges to malaria vaccine development. Dr. McNeil also
participated in sessions devoted to two of MVI’s vaccine partners. He
co-moderated a special symposium on the design of the Phase 3 study for GlaxoSmithKline
Biologicals’ candidate vaccine RTS,S, and he will spoke at a session
on the whole-parasite candidate vaccine under development by Sanaria Inc.
Terrell Carter,
Technical Coordinator for the RTS,S project at MVI, presented a poster entitled, “Developing Capacity for Chest X-Ray Capabilities
in a Phase 3 Malaria Vaccine Trial.” The poster describes preparations
by MVI and its partners for the pivotal Phase 3 trial of RTS,S.
MVI hosted a Sept. 20–21 consensus building workshop on T-cell assays
in London. This workshop highlighted the main issues and ideas regarding
cell-mediated immunity responses in malaria and seek consensus among a range
of experts on
three issues:
1. Which assays and antigens malariologists should focus on.
2. Whether it is appropriate to move towards standardizing these assays.
3. At what point a reference center for T-cell assays will be necessary.
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