BiotechMashup

Scientists have developed a novel immunization method that will induce fast and effective protection in humans against the life-threatening malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

New research synthesizes information from many different studies that attempt to link specific antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum with protection from clinical malaria and comes to important conclusions about which antigens might be worth advancing as vaccine candidates.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) Singapore scientists from Bioprocessing Technology Institute under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research have for the first time, identified the molecular 'switch' that directly triggers the body's first line of defense against pathogens, more accurately known as the body's "innate immunity."

by Noel J. Gerald, Victoria Majam, Babita Mahajan, Yukiko Kozakai, Sanjai Kumar
Background Whole malaria parasites are highly effective in inducing immunity against malaria. Due to the limited success of subunit based vaccines in clinical studies, there has been a renewed interest in whole parasite-based malaria vaccines. Apart from attenuated sporozoites, there have also been efforts to use live asexual stage parasites as vaccine immunogens.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) Researchers from the p53 Laboratory of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, have made a finding that makes feasible a unique method of cancer treatment. Their work, published online in the leading journal Cell Death and Differentiation today , offers new insight on how to tap on the properties of p53, the "guardian of the genome," to more effectively kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells.

Scientists have pin-pointed the 72 molecular switches that control the three key stages in the life cycle of the malaria parasite and have discovered that over a third of these switches can be disrupted in some way. Their research is a significant breakthrough in the search for cheap and effective vaccines and drugs to stop the transmission of a disease which kills up to a million children a year. Until now little has been known about the cellular processes involved in the development of this deadly disease.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) An international research team led by scientists from Singapore Immunology Network under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research discovered that a special class of fatty molecules is essential for activating a unique group of early-responding immune cells. This study sheds light on how recognition of fatty molecules by immune cells could protect from infection, allergic reactions, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

A novel technique to "tame" the malaria parasite, by forcing it to depend on an external supply of a vital chemical, has been developed. The scientists have, in effect, created a domesticated strain of Plasmodium -- the one-celled parasite that causes malaria -- that would no longer cause this dreaded disease.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) Scientists from the Agency of Science, Technology and Research/Duke-NUS Neuroscience Research Partnership, A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and the National University of Singapore have made a breakthrough concerning how anxiety is regulated in the vertebrate brain.