Immunize thyself

Do these school kids hold the secret to a malaria vaccine? Credit: Courtesy of Arlene Dent" />Do these school kids hold the secret to a malaria vaccine? Credit: Courtesy of Arlene Dent Mud-brick, thatch-roofed school houses in small villages that cling to rugged mountainsides in Papua New Guinea - this was the topic of conversation between two malaria researchers at a Philadelphia restaurant during a

Written byBob Grant

| 3 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

3:00

Mud-brick, thatch-roofed school houses in small villages that cling to rugged mountainsides in Papua New Guinea - this was the topic of conversation between two malaria researchers at a Philadelphia restaurant during a break in the action at the 2003 American Society of Tropical Hygiene meeting. Well, not the school houses themselves, but what was in them: A group of children who appear to be immune to the Plasmodium vivax parasite, despite their constant exposure. Why?

Christopher King of Case Western University's Center for Global Health and Diseases and Ivo Mueller of the Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research wanted to design a study to find out. Sitting at the restaurant, they both agreed: "We need to do this study," King says. In the end, it provided evidence that antibodies can protect people from vivax malaria.

Papua New Guinea is a nation beset by malaria, the single most common ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
View Full Profile