The question of developing effective malarial vaccines is now a step closer to Scottish biocontroller maker Arrayjet, which was selected to work with a Kenya-based medical research group to help with ongoing R&D trials. could lead to a immunization program to treat malaria in less than two years.
Malarial proteins printed on slides and made by the Arrayjet Marathon – here run by Emily Chapsat at KEMRI. Image Credit: Arrayjet
The disease kills around half a million people in Africa each year, most of them children under the age of five.
This research is being carried out by the Kemri-Wellcome Trust based in Kilifi northeast of Mombasa – a partnership between KEMRI – Kenya Institute of Medical Research, the Wellcome Trust and Oxford University.
To advance their research, the Kemri-Wellcome Trust is using Arrayjet microarray technology to print Malaria proteins on slides. A human serum is then screened against each protein and an antibody-antigen image is generated for each sample. This gives Kemri-Wellcome Trust scientists an insight into which Malaria proteins would make the best vaccine targets, thus greatly advancing their research.
For Arrayjet, a small Scottish life science company playing a leading role in the ongoing development of vaccines against malarial, demonstrating the critical importance of our biological technologies to the global health challenges faced daily by millions of people. The Kemri-Wellcome Trust has used our microarrayer technology in recent years but has updated this to help increase the high rate of printed protein arrays. In addition, we are just delighted to be playing our part in solving the complexity of a major infectious disease and this marks a new era of the availability of vaccines to prevent malaria. spreading as strong as it is and of course, helping to save countless lives in the process. ”
Iain McWilliam, Chief Executive, Arrayjet
If the early and encouraging results from our routine study findings are anything to go by, new malaria vaccines may soon be available. We know that vaccines are extremely important in helping to reduce infection levels and by using Arrayjet technology to deliver the highest level of biodegradable microarrays our research team has greatly helped with the aim of ending the misery and suffering caused by malaria for millions of people each year. ”
Faith Osler, Immunologist and director of the research group, Kemri-Wellcome Trust