Faith Osier: The key to a better malaria vaccine
Faoth Osier: A chave para uma melhor vacina contra a malária
Faith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in Africa every year,
em África todos os anos,
about malaria vaccines.
de vacinas contra a malária.
are simply not good enough.
não são suficientemente boas.
for 100 plus years.
há mais de 100 anos.
a tecnologia era limitada.
of what the parasite really looked like.
do que o parasita realmente era.
a proteómica.
uma visão mais clara
the parasite really is.
é realmente o parasita.
has remained pretty rudimentary.
vacinas tem permanecido bem rudimentar.
we must go back to basics
devemos voltar ao básico,
handle this complexity.
o nosso corpo lida com esta complexidade.
infected with malaria
infetadas com malária
but they don't get ill.
mas não ficam doentes.
ao nosso parasita complexo,
who had overcome malaria
que tinham vencido a malária
antibody response look like?"
resposta dos anticorpos?"
on the radar for malaria vaccines.
para as vacinas contra a malária.
important parts of the parasite.
pode não estar a considerar
a protein of interest,
identificava uma proteína de interesse,
important for a vaccine
para uma vacina
participants in a village in Africa,
participantes numa aldeia em África
would predict who got malaria
iriam prever quem tinha tido malária
a small number of proteins
um pequeno número de proteínas
30 years of this type of research
30 anos deste tipo de pesquisa
conducted over just three months.
realizado em pouco mais de três meses.
in seven African countries,
em sete países africanos,
and the variable intensity
e a intensidade variável
to prioritize our parasite proteins,
para dar prioridade
the malaria parasite on a chip.
o parasita da malária num "chip".
and we're very proud of that.
e estamos orgulhosos disso.
on over 100 antibody responses.
em mais de 100 respostas de anticorpos.
antibody response,
de anticorpos de sucesso,
what might make a good malaria vaccine.
fazer uma boa vacina contra a malária.
do to the parasite.
que os anticorpos fazem ao parasita.
Is there synergy?
Há uma sinergia?
a bit of one antibody won't be enough.
não será suficiente.
concentrations of antibodies
concentrações de anticorpos
kill the parasite in multiple ways,
matam o parasita de múltiplas formas
may not adequately reflect reality.
não refletir a realidade adequadamente.
in greater definition,
com melhor definição,
overcome this complexity.
ultrapassa esta complexidade.
the breakthroughs that we need
os avanços de que precisamos
through vaccination.
através da vacinação.
are we actually to a malaria vaccine?
estamos de uma vacina contra a malária?
at the beginning of a process
no início de um processo
what we need to put in the vaccine
que precisamos de colocar na vacina
but we're getting there.
mas estamos a chegar lá.
tell me what does it stand for
diga-me o que é que significa
Malaria Antigen Research Partnership.
Malaria Antigen Research Partnership.
is referring to us in Africa,
in collaboration,
em colaboração,
and looking to Europe,
para a América e para a Europa,
some strength within Africa.
dentro de África.
to develop a malaria vaccine,
contra a malária,
cientistas africanos,
of disease in Africa is high,
to push the boundaries
que continuem a superar os limites
mentioned this a little bit,
if there were a malaria vaccine?
mudariam se esta vacina existisse?
half a million lives every year.
de vidas todos os anos.
12 billion US dollars a year.
americanos por ano.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Faith Osier - Infectious disease doctorFaith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines.
Why you should listen
Faith Osier works to understand how humans acquire immunity to malaria and intends to use this knowledge to design highly effective vaccines. Her studies focus on infections with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which leads to nearly half a million deaths in Africa each year. She demonstrated that Kenyan children who did not get sick after a malaria infection had high levels of antibodies against combinations of specific proteins found within the parasite. Subsequently, her studies in immune African adults revealed that there were in fact many additional parasite proteins that could be considered for malaria vaccines. To verify her results, she designed a massive study involving children and adults from 15 different geographical locations in Africa. She designed KILchip, a custom protein microarray that enabled her team to analyze antibody responses to more than 100 intentionally selected malaria proteins in these human blood samples. Her research group also studies the mechanisms by which these antibodies kill malaria parasites.
Osier is a Professor of Malaria Immunology in the Nuffield Deptartment of Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK. She has two research laboratories: one in the Biosciences Deptartment of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, and the other in the Parasitology Deptartment of Heidelberg University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. She has won multiple awards for her work including the Royal Society Pfizer Award (UK) and the prestigious Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She holds major research grants from the Wellcome Trust, is an MRC African Research Leader and an EDCTP Senior Fellow. She is also a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, an advisor to the Executive Committee of the Federation of African Immunological Societies and the vice-president/president-elect of the International Union of Immunological Societies. She was named a TED Fellow in 2018. She is passionate about training African scientists to excel and deliver the medical interventions that are urgently needed on the continent.
Faith Osier | Speaker | TED.com