Studies on developing a vaccine against Leishmania species

Large scale production of protein based vaccines requires development of a manufacture method that is as cheap as possible. Many synthetic vaccines are produced in bacteria but they cannot produce the modifications to allow correct protein folding. We are using a lizard protozoan parasite, which can make the required modifications, to produce a protein vaccine that can protect against leishmaniasis. This allows us to work towards producing a vaccine candidate for leishmaniasis and determine the factors that influence protein production in this model. Currently 350 million people, living in 98 countries, are at risk of contracting leishmaniasis. Each year approximately 1.5 million new cases of cutaneous and 500,000 of visceral leishmaniasis are reported. Development of a vaccine would be a major benefit and working on this project would allow a student to develop their molecular and immunological skills.