Science

Brazilian University of São Paulo could, for the first time, produce a successful P. vivax vaccine! This is a landmark for South American malaria as Plasmodium vivax is responsible for over 80% of the cases here.

This is my expertise area so I'm overly excited, this is how it works:

The immunizer is capable of inducing high antibody load against three variants of a P.vivax protein - PvCSP - (unlike PfCSP from p. falciparum, which has less variants). 

This protein is present in the surface of sporozoite, infectious form of the parasite, present in the Anopheles mosquitos saliva. 

Once in human body, this protein helps the parasite invade the liver, which means the vaccine has the potential to prevent infections.

This research was performed by Dr. Irene Soares, which used to be my lab's neighbor!