Algis Jasinskas

Abstract Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum remains one of the major infectious diseases with a high burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. In spite of the advancements made in vaccine development and implementation in endemic countries, sterile and durable protection has not been achieved. Recently, we have shown the superior protective capacity of whole sporozoites attenuated to arrest late but not early during the liver stage development in a controlled human malaria infection study.

Highlights • Group 1 and 2 DBLα domains are serodominant in PNG children exposed to malaria • Antibodies against individual DBLα are weakly associated with risk of clinical malaria • Antibodies against specific conserved DBLα are strongly associated with severe malaria • Protective DBLα antibodies are potential biomarkers for severe disease risk Summary Extreme diversity of the major Plasmodium falciparum antigen, PfEMP1, poses a barrier to identifying targets of immunity to malaria.

ABSTRACT Current seasonal influenza virus vaccines engender antibody-mediated protection that is hemagglutinin (HA) subtype specific and relatively short-lived. Coverage for other subtypes or even variants within a subtype could be improved from a better understanding of the factors that promote HA-specific antibody cross-reactivity. Current assays to evaluate cross-reactivity, such as the ELISA, require a separate test for each antigen and are neither high-throughput nor sample-sparing.