Complexity Digest 2005.05 - 02

31-Jan-2005

Malaria Vaccines: Back to the Future?, Science Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Malaria is the scourge of many developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, claiming several million lives each year. Researchers have struggled for decades to make a successful subunit or attenuated whole-organism vaccine but with limited success. Factors that have hampered the development of a subunit vaccine include the complexity of the malaria life cycle, the wide variety of immune response induced by the malaria parasite, and an incomplete knowledge of protective immunity.