VAC086 Trial: Sarah sets up laboratory and conducts training at Fajara station in The Gambia

VAC086 is a Phase Ib multi-stage Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine study to assess safety and immunogenicity of the blood-stage vaccine candidate RH5.2 virus-like particle (VLP) in Matrix-MTM and the pre-erythrocytic stage vaccine candidate R21 in Matrix-MTM, both alone and in combination, in adults and infants in the Gambia. This trial will take place at Sukuta field site, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM led by PI at site Prof Umberto D’Alessandro, CI in Oxford, Dr Angela Minassian and sponsored by University of Oxford as part of the EDCTP funded, Multi-stage Malaria Vaccine Consortium (MMVC annual meeting - EDCTP).

Sarah Silk, Senior Clinical Trials Immunologist from University of Oxford visited the Fajara station for two weeks to set up the laboratory and conduct training, working with the VAC086 immunology team; Dr Sophie Roetynck, Senior Immunologist, Sona Jabang, Higher Scientific Officer and Amie Kolleh Njie, Scientific Officer. This included study set up, technology transfer of the primary endpoint of the trial and pre-exposure assessment of MMVC consortium samples for trial contextualisation. The training was a great success with formal concordance analysis completed for transfer of the antibody assessment for RH5 to be conducted on site, as well as large dataset on malaria antigen responses collected for consortia samples to allow profiling of trial sites and enhancement of trial result interpretation. This trial will be the first multi-stage malaria vaccine trial in MMVC and a very exciting step for the field.

 

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