Dublin-Born Developer of Malaria Vaccine Wins European Inventor Award

Trials and Tribulations In general, vaccines work by injecting a non-pathogenic version of a virus or bacteria that helps the body gain immunity by remembering an immune response for future exposure, which promotes a fast and efficient immune reaction during exposure. Malaria, however, is not your typical disease.

Instead of being caused by bacteria or viruses, it is a result of a parasitic infection. This makes malaria extremely difficult to treat because the parasite has extremely high genetic variability. Dr Anton Götz, a translational immunologist at Seattle Children’s, states, “ the parasite changes dramatically as it moves through different stages of its life cycle, making it much harder for the immune system to recognize and remember.” Specifically, the proteins within the parasites change frequently, which makes the parasite hard to target.

In addition, Philip Lewis from the House of Lords under the UK Parliament notes that “the body’s experience of fighting malaria does not help confer natural immunity, meaning that an individual can get the disease multiple times.” With this severe difficulty in treating malaria, Sir Hill and his team of researchers faced many dead ends and failed trials, spending nearly three decades on the R21/Matrix-M vaccine.

Sir Hill completely reworked the pre-existing malaria vaccine to overcome these complications. The European Patent Office issued a press release after awarding Sir Hill the European Inventor Award, stating, “ Hill’s team redesigned the vaccine structure to include more of the key malaria protein segments recognised by the immune system, while removing components that could divert the immune response.

The vaccine forms nanoparticles approximately 25 nanometres in size, helping the immune system recognise and respond more effectively. Combined with the Matrix-M adjuvant, the vaccine generates a substantially stronger antibody response than earlier approaches.” Sir Hill also co-led the team that developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020 against Covid.

To put into perspective the incredible difficulty of developing a vaccine against a parasite, Covid has only twelve genes, and malaria has around a whopping 5,000 genes. Despite the failure of the vaccine for the first ten years, the chemical adjuvant was a game-changer for the effectiveness of the vaccine and promoted strong immune responses, revolutionizing the battle against malaria.

Incredible Outperformance The previous WHO – recommended vaccine, RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix), was first recommended in 2021 and has been cleared in terms of efficiency and pricing by Hill’s vaccine. The original vaccine is roughly 35 to 50 per cent effective after phase three trials in children 17 months old.

This protection decreases significantly without another booster shot at two years old. Additionally, the percentage of severe and life-threatening malaria dropped by only 30 per cent compared to Hill’s 75 per cent. The pricing for the RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix) vaccine retailed for originally €8.71 and has since been reduced to €4.35 to be more available, and is still more expensive than Hill’s vaccine at less than €3 per dose.

Thus, the Hill’s R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has become the new frontrunner in preventive care against malaria. Legacy Sir Hill’s inspiration to find the cure came from his experience in Gambia, where he was working as a researcher in a hospital where young children were dying from malaria in large numbers.

With his decades-long research at the Jenner Institute and determination for a highly effective malaria vaccine, Hill was able to invent a vaccine that has up to 75 per cent effectiveness, affordability, and wide reach. Hill was able to achieve his goal in helping the children affected, with up to twelve months of protection following three doses within seasonal transmission zones like Gambia.