Rhoel Dinglasan was awarded $6 million by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund to test a new malaria vaccine in humans. The vaccine takes a new approach by immunizing mosquitoes against infection by Plasmodium parasites, so mosquitoes are not able to transmit the parasites to people.

“Many of the existing malaria vaccines and drugs have failed because the Plasmodium parasites have co-evolved with mosquitoes and people. They know how to dodge our immune system and live within mosquitoes, and that’s a hard game to circumvent. What we’re doing is completely different,” said Dinglasan. 

• Rhoel Dinglasan