Project description
Accelerating research for placental malaria vaccines
Placental malaria (PM) is a life-threatening disease. Pregnant women and babies are particularly vulnerable. The EU-funded ADVANCE-VAC4PM project aims to accelerate the development of a PM vaccine by obtaining optimal cross-reactivity of two promising vaccine candidates – PAMVAC and PRIMVAC – that have successfully passed phase I clinical studies in Europe and Africa. Researchers will leverage a novel vaccine platform based on capsid virus-like particles and will evaluate the co-administration of the two vaccines to enhance immune response. The project will also involve training and community-based research at the African institutions to assess mobile applications for monitoring pregnancy outcomes and to model the development and commercialisation of PM vaccines.
Objective
Placental malaria (PM) is a severe disease that affects a particularly vulnerable demographic group, pregnant women. The burden of disease is high, threatening more than 100 million women every year and causing the death of an estimated 50,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 infants. An effective vaccine would be an attractive tool to control PM on its own, or to complement the existing yet imperfect tools.
ADVANCE-VAC4PM will build on the success of previously conducted first-in-human (phase I) clinical studies in Europe and Africa, assessing the two PM vaccine candidates PAMVAC and PRIMVAC. The clinical trial results demonstrated that both adjuvanted vaccine candidates are safe and well-tolerated and induce good homologous immune responses demonstrating the feasibility of developing a PM vaccine. However, prior to embarking on costly, large scale phase II clinical trials, it is essential to optimize the cross-reactivity of the vaccines. Overall project objective is to advance the PM vaccine development and to broaden the immune response by i) increasing the vaccine-induced antibody level by using Virus-Like particles (VLP) to display the PM antigens or ii) by evaluating if a co-administration approach using PRIMVAC and PAMVAC-cVLP will increase cross-reactivity and cross-inhibitory antibody titers.
These activities will be embedded in capacity building activities e.g. workshops, training of MSc/PhD students, small competitive research grants to African early career researchers and development of immunology laboratory capacity.
In preparation of future PM vaccine trials, digital tools will be evaluated. Pregnancy registers will be developed and the feasibility and acceptability of using mobile applications for tracking pregnancy outcomes will be assessed. Modelling the cost-effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of PM vaccines will further strengthen the case. Awareness on the need for a PM vaccine will be raised in stakeholder engagement activities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.1 - Health
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.1.4 - Infectious Diseases, including poverty-related and neglected diseases
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-HLTH-2021-DISEASE-04
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.