Dear Colleagues,

Malaria remains a major global health threat, with 216 million cases of malaria worldwide and approx. 445,000 deaths per year, despite massive elimination efforts. Increasing resistance of Plasmodium against anti-malarial drugs and decreasing effectiveness of insecticides are currently among the greatest challenges facing the eradication campaign. The development of an efficacious malaria vaccine that reduces—at minimum—mortality rates, has been a focal point of malaria research. While there are vaccine candidates that show promising short-term vaccine efficacy, longevity of protection and cross-reactivity against strains different from the vaccine strain remain elusive. Current efforts to generate an efficacious vaccine range from testing different vaccine platforms to including various vaccine antigens that are targeted because they are crucial for the survival and/or functionality of the parasite. In addition, while pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage based vaccines intended to prevent or alleviate disease, promising transmission blocking vaccines are being developed, which are considered altruistic vaccines since they contribute to malaria eradication at the population level, but do not directly benefit the vaccinee. This Special Issue will provide an overview over the strategies targeting different life stages of Plasmodium, application of different vaccine platforms and regimens to increase vaccine efficacy, summarizing the state-of-the-art in the field of malaria vaccine research.

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• Vaccine
• Plasmodium
• immune correlate
• protection
• life stage
• vaccine antigens