London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

​​World Malaria Day: Invest, innovate, implement 

​Maternal Immunisation: Prevent, protect, immunise 

​Vaccinating women in pregnancy has emerged as a promising tool to protect women against infectious diseases and tackle infant morbidity and mortality worldwide. LSHTM Vaccine Centre World Immunisation Week activities will showcase the development of new maternal vaccines and provide the opportunity to discuss other vaccines with potential positive health outcomes.​ 

LSHTM’s Malaria Centre and Vaccine Centre co-host a hybrid seminar to mark World Malaria Day and World Immunisation Week. With the approval of RTS,S and promising results from the R21 trial, the landscape for malaria vaccines is taking a more positive turn. Dr Magloire Natama, from the Institute de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé in Burkino Faso and a LSHTM SMC & RTS,S trial investigator will focus on falciparum vaccines and Dr Mimi Hou, University of Oxford, will investigate the pipeline for vivax vaccines. The Q&A session will be an opportunity to discuss the relative benefits and challenges (financial, scientific, and delivery) to access for potential beneficiaries, including pregnant women. ​ 

Speakers

Dr Magloire Natama, Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Burkina Faso 

Lecture title: Insights into the development progress and clinical evaluation of the candidate malaria vaccine R21/Matrix-M

Speaker bio: Dr Natama is a biologist by background and currently appointed as associate researcher at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) in Burkina Faso. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Antwerp in 2018 in partnership with the malaria Unit at ITM. His current research interests include: (i) vaccinology and malaria immunology, (ii) malaria during pregnancy and its effect in infants and (iii) molecular epidemiology of malaria infections with focus on gametocyte carriage. He is leading the Biomedical research lab at CRUN and he is the coordinator of the Phase II and III clinical trials of the promising R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine candidate.

Dr Mimi Hou, University of Oxford  

Lecture title: Vaccines against blood-stage P. vivax malaria

Speaker bio: Dr Hou commenced her DPhil in the Draper Group in 2022. The aim of her project will be to isolate and characterise monoclonal antibodies against the Plasmodium vivax Duffy-binding protein. She originally joined the Draper Group in 2020 as a doctor working on the group's malaria clinical trials, testing vaccines against Plasmodium vivax and conducting controlled human malaria infection studies in healthy adult volunteers. During the pandemic, she worked on the Oxford Covid Vaccine Trials and was involved in managing the external UK sites for the phase III trial. She is a paediatric doctor by background and trainee in the Thames Valley deanery. Prior to joining the Draper group, I completed an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Oxford under Prof Rowland-Jones working on HIV evolution in infants.

Professor Jean-Bosco Ouedraogo, Head of Malaria & Neglected Tropical Diseases Unit, IRSS, and adjunct Professor at Yale School of Public Health

Lecture title: TBD (RTS,S and SMC)

Speaker bio: Jean-Bosco Ouedraogo is a MD, parasitologist and Researcher with a distinguished scientific career with major contributions to science in Burkina Faso. He is also a Professor of parasitology at the universities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Since 1983, He have conducted a series of studies on the resistance to different antimalarial drugs using in vivo, in vitro and molecular techniques. Recently he participated and played an important role in the RTS,S malaria vaccine trial in Burkina. He is currently investigating the potential benefit of adding azithromycin to the antimalarials used for SMC and a comparative study of SMC and seasonal vaccination with RTSS. He is also PI of many ongoing clinical trials and vaccine trials in the region of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.His scientific contributions have been presented in over 185 peer reviewed publications. In addition to the scientific activities he has had substantial administrative responsibilities acting as director of Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS) in Bobo-Dioulasso from 1999-2015 and Director General of the Centre Muraz from 2009 -2013.