ImmuneWatch receives Horizon Europe funding in a new innovative European partnership to tackle hurdles in malaria vaccine development

With cutting-edge technologies and an unwavering commitment, the EU-funded CAPTIVATE project has the mission to create a next-generation malaria vaccine that targets multiple stages of the deadliest malaria parasite, P. falciparum.

Malaria remains a significant global health issue, with approximately 247 million cases and 619,000 fatalities reported in 2021. It primarily affects the most susceptible groups, and in 2021, children under the age of 5 represented 80% of malaria-related deaths in the WHO African Region.

CAPTIVATE will develop a new and improved vaccine targeting multiple developmental stages of P.falciparum, the most dangerous form of the malaria parasite. The consortium will optimise the efficacy of current pre-erythrocytic vaccines while evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of new blood-stage mRNA vaccine candidates, from pre-clinical testing to an early-stage clinical trial.

In parallel, the consortium will work on developing the next generation of highly efficacious malaria vaccine candidates using an advanced in-silico platform to analyse TCR- and single cell sequencing data in combination with artificial intelligence (AI) based predictions of novel malaria vaccine antigens. ImmuneWatch, an expert in the analysis of TCR-sequencing data will coordinate this work as work package leader.

The consortium is coordinated by the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) (Germany) and brings together expertise from different partners across Europe and Australia:

• Leiden University Medical Center (Netherlands)
• Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg (Germany)
• Immunewatch (Belgium)
• NEC OncoImmunity (Norway)
• Quantoom biosciences (Belgium)
• Stichting Biomedical Primate Research Center (Netherlands)
• University of New South Wales (Australia

Read the full press release here.