High Throughput Genomics Screening for Malaria Antigen Discovery

Malaria is a major threat to world health and the personnel of the US armed forces. To date there is no available effective protective vaccine. However, an abundance of data in animal models and in humans has indicated the existence of protective antigens and demonstrated that an effective vaccine against malaria is feasible. Unfortunately, the most effective vaccine, based on radiation attenuated Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites, is not practical for mass use. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop a technology that can identify and prioritize novel protective target antigens for vaccine development. Our hypothesis is that P. yoelii antigens that are recognized by irradiated sporozoite immunized mice can be identified using an in vitro system and that such antigens will elicit strong protective immune responses when delivered in a potent vaccine. Furthermore, the corresponding P. falciparum orthologues will be excellent vaccine candidates. The phase I SBIR focuses on the feasibility of the screen; objective #1 focuses on methods to generate antigen carrying vectors, objective #2 focuses on the assays to identify T-cells specificities from immune animals, and objective #3 focuses on the use of proprietary adenoviral targeting technology to improve the sensitivity and through-put of the screen.