Professor Faith Osier

Country: Kenya & Germany

Institution: KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya and Heidelberg University Hospital, Heildelberg, Germany

Research Areas: Malaria, Human Immunity, Vaccines, Parasitology

Lab Website:  www.smartpartnership.net

Faith’s lab works to understand how humans acquire immunity to malaria, knowledge that they intend to use to design highly effective vaccines. Their studies focus on infections with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum that leads to nearly half a million deaths in Africa each year.  They 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, their studies in immune African adults revealed that there were in fact many additional parasite proteins that could be considered for malaria vaccines.  To verify their results, Faith designed a massive study involving children and adults from 15 different geographical locations in Africa.  Her team designed KILchip©, a custom protein microarray that enabled her team to analyse antibody responses to over 100 intentionally selected malaria proteins in these human blood samples.  Her team also studies the mechanisms by which these antibodies kill malaria parasites.