You are invited to take part in a challenge study to investigate whether a novel vaccine can prevent malaria. The study is being run by the Oxford Vaccine Group in partnership with the Department of Paediatrics which is part of the University of Oxford. It is funded by the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford.

If you are aged 18 to 45 years old, in good health and live in the Oxford area, then you may be eligible to take part in the study. We will provide reimbursement for your time, inconvenience, and travel. The total study participation time is up to 10 months.

Background

Malaria is a major global health problem. There were around 263 million cases of malaria and 597,000 deaths worldwide in 2023. Most of the deaths are in children under five living in Africa. It is a major problem for those who live in affected areas and for travelers. There is a great need for a safe, effective malaria vaccine as the range of malaria medicines is limited and drug resistance is increasing. Researchers around the world, including at the University of Oxford, have been investigating malaria vaccines for many years.

There is currently no widely available and consistently effective vaccine against malaria and we are trying to make a vaccine which is better at preventing serious illness and death. In this study, we hope to see if an experimental vaccine can protect against P. falciparum malaria and to understand the immune response which may be important in preventing disease. We hope that the knowledge gained from this trial will help in the development of vaccines and make Malaria a preventable disease.

Study information

The vaccines we are testing in this study are called "R78C" and "RH5.1". They are given with an adjuvant called "Matrix-M". This is a substance to improve the body’s response to a vaccination. We will be giving volunteers three doses of vaccine by injection into the muscle of the upper arm. After each vaccination, we will see volunteers in clinic at regular intervals to assess for side effects and take blood samples to analyse the body’s immune response to the vaccines. We will use a malaria ‘challenge’ to test the efficacy of the vaccine, compared to unvaccinated volunteers. An optional fine needle aspiration (FNA) procedure may also be performed to find out more about the immune response. FNA involves taking cells and fluid from a lymph node (‘gland’).

Further information on the vaccines and study groups can be found in the Participant Information Sheets (PIS) (below).

The Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford, is based in the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine at the Churchill Hospital site.

Further Information

If you would like to find out more, please read the Participant Information Sheet :

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the study, please contact us by email or phone:

Email: info@ovg.ox.ac.uk

Telephone: 01865 611400