World Vaccine Congress Europe 2025

Poster session

Poster  Title: High-Throughput SPR screening of next generation vaccine candidates for Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage malaria

Presenter: Dr. Kirsty McHugh, Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist, University of Oxford

Abstract: Developing more effective malaria vaccines remains a global health priority. Rational design strategies have been applied to improve the stability and immunogenicity of RH5.1, a leading blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate that has demonstrated 55% efficacy in preventing clinical malaria in a recent Phase IIb clinical trial.  A central challenge in the design process is ensuring that engineered immunogens retain essential antibody-binding epitopes while optimizing other properties such as expression and stability. Here, we establish a high-throughput surface plasmon resonance (HT-SPR) screening method using a human recombinant monoclonal antibody (mAb) array and the Carterra LSA platform to support the design and evaluation of next-generation RH5-based vaccine candidates. This method allows rapid, quantitative assessment of antigen binding to epitope-specific mAbs, ensuring the preservation of key epitopes. Applied to a panel of RH5.1 variants, HT-SPR identifies candidates that maintain the epitopes of interest, which is crucial for eliciting targeted immune responses. This approach offers a powerful and scalable tool to accelerate the development of optimised RH5-based malaria vaccines.