A TRIAL in which volunteers were made immune to malaria by injecting them with just a few of the parasites has revealed a new way to create a vaccine. This may be important if the vaccines now being tested don’t live up to their promise.
The body tackles infectious diseases in two main ways: it produces antibodies that latch onto invaders or infected cells and neutralise them, or T cells that tell other cells to destroy intruders. Most potential malaria vaccines have been designed to stimulate production of antibodies, but it is very difficult to sustain high levels of the different types needed to fight various…
