June 08, 2011 -- Every year, 10,000 pregnant women and up to
200,000 newborn babies are killed by the malaria parasite.
Doctors all around the globe have for years been looking in vain
for a medical protection, and now researchers from the
University of Copenhagen have found the biochemically weakness
of the lethal malaria parasite. With a grant of 15 million DKK
(approximately 3 million USD) from the Danish National Advanced
Technology Foundation and close corporation with two Danish
biotech companies, the researchers can now start developing the
vaccine and take it through the first trials to test its safety.
The malaria parasite travels via the spit of an infected
mosquito to the liver of the new host, where it spreads to the
red blood corpuscles and starts to reproduce itself. "Pregnant
women and children below the age of five years are particularly
vulnerable to malaria because of the parasite's survival
mechanisms. The parasite has a protein hook designed to attach
it to the placenta and this leads to a