Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Stanford Malaria Vaccine Trials Use Adenoviruses!

Exciting news! The malaria vaccine currently undergoing clinical trials at the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital Center here at Stanford uses a viral package to carry the malaria antigen.

According to the research team, the experimental malaria vaccine uses a type of adenoviruse that does not usually infect humans. People receiving the vaccine will not develop an immune response against the virus packaging, nor will they contract malaria from the vaccine. The antigen carried by the adenovirus is derived from the part of the parasite that triggers the immune response and is not the entire parasite.

The vaccine is produced by Crucell, a company in the Netherlands, and favorable studies in mice and large animals have led the NIH to sponsor himan testing, first at Vanderbilt and now at Stanford.

The vaccine center at LPCH is looking for healthy volunteers ages 18-45 to receive three injections of the malaria vaccine into the upper arm, if anyone is interested in promoting malaria research or earning a bit of extra money. :)

Read about the vaccine and the clinical trials at http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2007/october/malaria.html

Julia

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