New trial to study how the human immune system adapts to ‘tolerate’ malaria parasites

Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh have launched a pioneering study that examines how the immune system responds to repeated malaria infections. The BIO-004 study is being run in partnership between the Department of Biochemistry (Draper Lab, based in the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery), the University of Edinburgh (Spence Lab, Institute of Immunology and Infection Research) and the Oxford Vaccine Group (part of the Department of Paediatrics). BIO-004 will provide a unique insight into how the immune system adapts over the first few malaria infections of life, learning to tolerate malaria parasites and developing natural immunity to severe illness.