Integrated studies of the targets, regulation and consequences of human immunity to malaria.

In Kilifi, Kenya, researchers are tracking thousands of children over years to map exactly how human immunity to malaria works—and why it often fails. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, mostly young children in Africa. The parasite that causes the disease is a master of disguise, changing its surface proteins to evade the immune system. Scientists know that people eventually develop some immunity after repeated infections, but they do not fully understand which parts of the parasite the immune system should target, or why immunity wanes when transmission drops. This project aims to fill those gaps. The team will identify the specific proteins on the merozoite—the invasive form of the parasite—that trigger protective immune responses. They will also characterise antigens on infected red blood cells that are linked to severe disease, and study the genetic changes in parasites exposed to different levels of immune pressure over decades. By combining mathematical modelling with next-generation sequencing of parasites, they will predict how changes in malaria transmission—for example, from control programmes—reshape both human immunity and parasite populations. This is fundamental science. It will not produce a vaccine or drug tomorrow. But understanding exactly which immune targets matter, and how the parasite evolves in response, provides the raw knowledge needed to design more effective vaccines and predict how malaria will behave as control efforts shift.