Juergen Bosch
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Biochemistry
Malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax is hard to eliminate because the parasite can lie dormant in the liver and reawaken later; these relapses account for up to 80% of infections and disease, creating a reservoir that current drugs struggle to clear. About 2.5 billion people live where this parasite spreads, with an estimated 106-313 million cases each year.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Microbiology & Immunology
Biophysics
- Topics
malaria
Plasmodium vivax
monoclonal antibodies
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Improve existing anti-malarial antibodies and design new ones based on humAb826827 and 864865, which bind PvAMA1, a Plasmodium vivax surface protein required to invade cells, by computationally generating about 1,000 antibody scaffolds per target epitope.
- Design new antibodies against PvCSP, the coat protein of the liver-infecting parasite stage, in both VK210 and VK247 variants, using blocking mouse antibodies as structural guides for the designs.
- Rank designed antibodies by how efficiently they can be produced, whether they compete with the known blocking antibody humAb826827 or mouse 2F2, and how well they block parasite growth.
- Test the best candidates against Plasmodium vivax clinical isolates in laboratory assays through a collaborating network in Cambodia, to establish which parasite proteins are functionally relevant targets alone or in combination.
More about the research
Blocking the parasite before it establishes in the liver is the most effective way to prevent dormant forms, so the work here aims to build antibodies, immune proteins that latch onto the parasite and stop it from entering cells.
Why it matters
Vivax malaria causes an estimated 106-313 million cases a year, and relapses from dormant liver parasites make it difficult to eliminate with existing drugs. Antibodies that block the parasite's entry into liver and red blood cells could offer a new preventive or therapeutic option for people in affected regions, and computational design could make such candidates much faster and cheaper to obtain than harvesting antibodies from patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Herman
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Define functional antibody correlates of protection in malaria-exposed PfSPZ vaccinees, and how pre-existing anti-malarial antibodies affect vaccination, using serum from vaccination and controlled human malaria infection trials.
Geoffrey Hart
University of Minnesota, MN·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether human NK cells, immune cells that kill antibody-coated targets, clear blood-stage Plasmodium in vivo by transferring them with human anti-merozoite antibodies into immunodeficient mice.
Jessica Lin
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether primaquine failures in a Thai Plasmodium vivax relapse trial were driven by a high burden of hypnozoites, dormant liver-stage parasites, using molecular inversion probe sequencing to detect circulating variants and gauge infection complexity.
The school
Case Western Reserve University: 34 labs on PI Pages, $643M a year on research, 213 research doctorates a year.
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