Awards

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem, especially in developing countries. Dr. Kaufmann is leading an international consortium that is studying differences in immune system responses between people exposed to TB who never become sick and those who develop the disease, focusing particular attention on people infected with both HIV and TB in endemic African countries. The project's participating laboratories in Europe and the United States are attempting to learn which host responses provide protective immunity against TB and to identify correlates of protective immunity and host biomarkers of TB disease that could help guide the design and testing of improved TB vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics.

A subset of women who apparently are resistant to HIV infection may provide scientists with the genetic and immune system information they need to advance vaccine and drug development. Since 1985, investigators have tracked groups of commercial sex workers in Kenya who do not become infected with HIV despite repeatedly having sex without condoms. If investigators can understand what constitutes and results in protective immunity against HIV, they may be able to replicate it through vaccines. Dr. Plummer's team is conducting an exhaustive analysis of the immunologic and genetic factors that mediate HIV resistance in the women, with the goal of gaining a more complete understanding of what constitutes protective immunity against HIV infection.

Acute respiratory infections, often due to Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus), are a primary cause of death in young children in developing countries. A new vaccine effectively prevents the most serious form of pneumococcal disease and also reduces nasopharyngeal colonization with pneumococci. Because only some people who are infected become ill, researchers must study tens of thousands of vaccinated individuals over a long period of time to determine whether the vaccine guards against disease. Dr. Käyhty is leading an international consortium of investigators whose goal is to establish a quick and inexpensive method of determining the efficacy and expected effectiveness of the pneumonia vaccine.

Due to differences in their immune systems, individuals respond to malaria in different ways. While some die, others survive, and still others are infected without becoming ill. Understanding how and why some people naturally resist malaria may help lead to the development of an effective vaccine against the disease. Dr. Kwiatkowski is leading the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network, or MalariaGEN, an international partnership of malaria research groups. MalariaGEN partners in 20 countries, including in 14 countries where malaria is endemic, are combining genomic technology with large-scale epidemiological analyses to identify mechanisms of protective immunity against malaria in humans. Their ultimate goal is to guide the development of tools and markers to facilitate the design and testing of vaccines against malaria. Kwiatkowski (Grand Challenges in Global Health: 2005-2015 retrospective)

Dr. Shaw is leading a consortium of investigators from clinical and laboratory research sites in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. They are conducting a comprehensive, integrated analysis of humoral and cellular responses to HIV-1 in people in early and acute stages of infection. Investigators are basing their work on the hypothesis that HIV-1 leads to chronic, persistent infection rather than a rapidly lethal disease because elements of the human immune system partially constrain viral replication over long periods. Ultimately, the project's goal is to contribute to the development of vaccines for HIV and AIDS through better understanding of natural immune response to the virus. Shaw (Grand Challenges in Global Health: 2005-2015 retrospective)

More than a million people die of malaria each year -- most of them infants, young children, and pregnant women, and most of them in Africa. Although severe malaria has a high mortality rate, some children in areas where the disease is endemic might experience only one or two episodes of severe illness before they become resistant to further bouts of the disease. Dr. Duffy's team is attempting to identify the antibodies and other immunological responses that protect children from severe illness and death due to the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the four parasite species of human malaria.