Evelien Bunnik
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, kills more than half a million people a year, mostly young children. People who grow up where malaria is common slowly build antibody-based protection against the disease, but vaccines have struggled to reproduce that protection.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
malaria
Plasmodium falciparum
atypical B cells
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2027
What they work on
- Identify which atypical B cell subsets are linked to protection against malaria, using spectral flow cytometry on malaria-experienced children matched for age and exposure but differing in immunity.
- Determine which parasite antigens antibodies from functional and dysfunctional atypical B cells recognize, using protein microarrays, and test cloned monoclonal antibodies for blocking parasite growth.
- Uncover the molecular programs driving atypical B cell development with single-cell sequencing of gene expression and chromatin accessibility, which reveals which DNA regions are open for use.
- Isolate merozoite-specific memory B cells from immune and non-immune people in Tororo, Uganda, test their antibodies against multiple Plasmodium falciparum strains, and map conserved epitopes.
- Deep-sequence memory B cell receptor repertoires and analyze serum antibodies to see how lifelong malaria exposure shapes immunity, and which dominant antibodies inhibit parasites across strains.
More about the research
Two connected projects study the antibody-making B cells of people living in malaria-endemic regions. The goal is to learn what protective immunity looks like so that vaccines can be designed to copy it.
Why it matters
Malaria vaccines have struggled to produce long-lasting protection that works across parasite strains, especially for young children in endemic regions. By defining which B cells and antibodies protect people naturally, this work could guide structure-based design of blood-stage vaccines. It could also help find ways to boost vaccine responses in people who already carry atypical B cells from past infections.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jessica Briggs
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Genotype every Plasmodium falciparum infection in a Ugandan birth cohort of 924 children to estimate the molecular force of infection (the rate at which new parasite clones establish infection) and compare children given DP chemoprevention with those given placebo.
Bryan Greenhouse
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Determine how a person's existing anti-PfEMP1 antibodies and the var genes a parasite first switches on together shape the outcome of new Plasmodium falciparum infections, using plasma, RNA sequencing and clinical records from a Ugandan cohort.
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.
The school
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: 15 labs on PI Pages, $313M a year on research, 149 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
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