Start
Feb 13, 2014 - 17:00
End
Feb 13, 2014 - 18:00
Venue
Room 118 Creativity Hall Chemical Engineering
Event Type
Speaker
G C Babu PhD Student Chemical Engineering IIT Bombay
Title
Recombinant production characterization and immunogenicity of malaria vaccine candidates expressed in /Bacillus subtilis
Abstract : Malaria infects 300-500 million people per year and causes several million deaths mainly in children under 5 years of age. Infection by /Plasmodium falciparum/ is the major cause of malaria deaths. Recent vaccine candidates attempt to block transmission of this parasite from host to host and invasion of cell types such as RBCs. Our research focuses on developing a recombinant vaccine which can induce the production of antibodies against the surface proteins of the parasite. Antibodies against such surface proteins are expected to block attachment of the parasite to RBCs thus preventing invasion. In this work a set of potential vaccine candidates has been chosen to develop an efficacious vaccine. They are /P. falciparum/ merozoite surface protein 1_19 (PfMSP1_19 ) 4 (PfMSP4) and 5 (PfMSP5). Production and recovery of such parasite surface proteins in most expression systems is difficult given that they are membrane proteins with extensive intramolecular linkages. Attempts to produce malaria vaccines in /E. coli/ have resulted in the formation of inclusion bodies and therefore incorrectly folded and even non-functional proteins. Here we discuss the ability of /B. subtilis/ to make functional malarial vaccine candidates.