Faith Osier: The key to a better malaria vaccine
Faith Osier: La clave para hacer una mejor vacuna contra la malaria
Faith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines. Full bio
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in Africa every year,
clínicos de malaria falciparum,
about malaria vaccines.
las vacunas contra la malaria.
are simply not good enough.
no son suficientemente buenas.
for 100 plus years.
trabajando en este tema.
la tecnología era muy limitada.
of what the parasite really looked like.
de lo que el parásito era en realidad.
con grandes tecnologías,
de avanzada y plataformas "ómicas",
la transcriptómica, la proteómica.
observar de manera más clara
the parasite really is.
en que hemos diseñando la vacuna
has remained pretty rudimentary.
we must go back to basics
es necesario volver a lo básico
handle this complexity.
organismo para manejar esta complejidad.
infected with malaria
de manera habitual
but they don't get ill.
en los anticuerpos.
ese complejo parásito,
who had overcome malaria
que se habían recuperado
antibody response look like?"
reacción a los anticuerpos?
on the radar for malaria vaccines.
no son tenidas en cuenta
important parts of the parasite.
de investigadores
partes importantes del parásito.
a protein of interest,
una proteína interesante,
important for a vaccine
si podía usarse en la vacuna
participants in a village in Africa,
unas 300 personas de un pueblo africano
si los anticuerpos de esa proteína
would predict who got malaria
habían contraído malaria y quiénes no.
una pequeña cantidad de proteínas
a small number of proteins
reducido de muestras
recolectadas en un solo lugar.
30 years of this type of research
30 años de este tipo de investigación
conducted over just three months.
realizado en tan solo tres meses.
en reunir 10 000 muestras
in seven African countries,
de siete países africanos,
and the variable intensity
e intensidad variable
to prioritize our parasite proteins,
clasificar las proteínas del parásito,
the malaria parasite on a chip.
de la malaria en un chip.
and we're very proud of that.
y estamos muy orgullosos.
on over 100 antibody responses.
a los anticuerpos de manera simultánea.
antibody response,
eficiente de los anticuerpos
what might make a good malaria vaccine.
una buena vacuna contra la malaria.
do to the parasite.
Is there synergy?
a bit of one antibody won't be enough.
de un anticuerpo no es suficiente.
concentrations of antibodies
altas concentraciones de anticuerpos
kill the parasite in multiple ways,
matan al parásito de muchas maneras
may not adequately reflect reality.
puede no reflejar la realidad tal como es.
in greater definition,
ver el parásito con mejor definición,
overcome this complexity.
para superar esta complejidad.
the breakthroughs that we need
puede darnos las herramientas necesarias
through vaccination.
mediante la vacunación.
are we actually to a malaria vaccine?
estamos de una vacuna contra la malaria?
at the beginning of a process
en el comienzo de un proceso
what we need to put in the vaccine
poner en la vacuna
but we're getting there.
pero estamos en camino.
tell me what does it stand for
y por qué es tan importante para Uds.
Malaria Antigen Research Partnership.
el antígeno de la malaria de sur a sur.
is referring to us in Africa,
a nosotros, que estamos en África,
in collaboration,
sea recíproca y lateral,
and looking to Europe,
hacia EE. UU. o Europa,
some strength within Africa.
hay una fuerza importante.
to develop a malaria vaccine,
una vacuna contra la malaria,
a capacitar a científicos africanos,
of disease in Africa is high,
de la enfermedad en África es alta,
to push the boundaries
personas sigan investigando
mentioned this a little bit,
if there were a malaria vaccine?
si hubiera una vacuna contra la malaria?
half a million lives every year.
de vidas por año.
12 billion US dollars a year.
representa para África
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