Laboratory receiveS R01 funding from NIAID to support next-generation malaria vaccine effortS11/29/2018
The Murphy Laboratory has received funding from the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health to support further development of the prime-and-trap malaria vaccine published earlier this year. The five-year, $3.86M award will support basic and translational immunology studies by our Laboratory and our collaborators at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, Seattle Children's Research Center, Sanaria, and the Washington National Primate Research Center. Dr. Murphy serves as the award's Principal Investigator. A special thanks to Tayla, Zach, and Brad who laid the initial groundwork for these efforts in our laboratory and to Bill Heath's Laboratory in Melbourne for pointing the malaria field in the direction of liver resident memory T cells in early 2016. For more information, go to our Research page or contact the Laboratory.
By Sean Murphy Thanksgiving is later this week. I’m not the biggest fan of turkey. I asked my family if we could make steak or fish for Thanksgiving and I got three categorical No’s. Humans domesticated the turkey some 1500 years ago (N. Scharping. 2016. When Humans Domesticated the Turkey. Discover), but I still think that no amount of brining, roasting, grilling, or gravy can make turkey taste nearly as good as steak. Since I was thinking about this at work, my mind got all jumbled up between turkeys and our lab’s major interest, malaria. Scientists have long known that all kinds of birds get infected by malaria parasites. In fact, there is such a dizzying array of Plasmodium-like parasites that infect birds (as well as amphibians and other non-vertebrates) that a bunch of taxonomic reclassifications are apparently needed (Galen et al. 2018. Roy Soc Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171780). So...when the conversation takes a lull at your Thanksgiving table, perhaps you can liven it up with these interesting avian malaria tidbits?
So even though it doesn't taste like steak, all hail the Thanksgiving turkey today. Happy Thanksgiving! Sean Murphy & Brad Stone presented two vaccine posters and a clinical trial seminar at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans Oct 28-Nov 1, 2018. Epidemiology student Dianna Hergott was also able to attend the meeting. As always, the ASTMH meeting was a whirlwind of data, ideas, and collaborations. Congratulations to ASTMH President-Elect Dr. Joel Breman. Dr. Breman was Sean's mentor back in 1997-2000, when we worked on a retrospective analysis of the unmeasured burden of malaria, a study that led to Sean's first ASTMH meeting in 2001.
Congratulations to our own Dr. Melanie Shears, who was selected to travel to São Paulo, Brazil for the São Paulo Advanced School on Vaccines. This vaccinology training course brings together world-renowned researchers, scientists, and trainees to discuss cutting-edge research on vaccines for malaria, AIDS, dengue, zika, and chikungunya.
For more information go to: HTTP://VACCINOLOGY.SCHOOL |
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