Lay summary
Our preliminary data in animals have shown that long-lived protective immunity against the infectious Plasmodium species that cause malaria can be elicited with vaccines that induce parasite-specific T cells that form a resident population in the liver. This was achieved with novel synthetic glycolipid-peptide conjugates that exploit the function of glycolipid-reactive NKT cells. The objective of the proposed Project is to understand the vaccine mechanism in more detail in order to optimize design, and to evaluate newly defined P. falciparum antigens to target with the vaccine, with the aim of eventual translation in humans.