Featured
-
-
News Feature |
Malaria fighter: this researcher paved the way for a game-changing vaccine
Halidou Tinto runs a clinic in rural Burkina Faso that has been instrumental to the approval of the world’s first malaria vaccines.
- Brendan Maher
-
News Explainer |
Climate change is also a health crisis — these 3 graphics explain why
Health is on the agenda at the COP28 climate meeting. Rising temperatures increase the spread of infectious diseases, claim lives and drive food insecurity.
- Carissa Wong
-
Editorial |
Half a million children die of malaria every year. Finally we can change that
With two vaccines available, this killer disease could now be eliminated — but will the world pull together to make it happen?
-
News |
Second malaria vaccine to win global approval is cheaper and easier to make
The World Health Organization has recommended a shot called R21 to prevent the disease in children.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
Article
| Open Access
The sex-specific factor SOA controls dosage compensation in Anopheles mosquitoes
A newly identified gene, sex chromosome activation (SOA), is a master regulator of dosage compensation in Anopheles gambiae.
- Agata Izabela Kalita
- , Eric Marois
- & Claudia Isabelle Keller Valsecchi
-
Outlook |
Battling a health crisis in the Amazon
Scientists are racing to control malaria in northern Brazil where the disease is playing a major part in the current health emergency threatening the region’s Indigenous people.
-
Outlook |
The challenges facing scientists in the elimination of malaria
The world now has a malaria vaccine, but it won’t be enough to wipe out the parasitic disease
- Richard Hodson
-
Outlook |
Malaria’s modelling problem
Southern Africa wants to eliminate the disease by 2030, but predicting where and when the disease will strike remains a challenge.
- Linda Nordling
-
Outlook |
Can malaria researchers slow the spread of drug resistance?
Concerns that artemisinin combination treatments are losing their effectiveness against Plasmodium parasites have set scientists looking for alternatives.
- T. V. Padma
-
Outlook |
The next frontier for malaria vaccination
Hot on the heels of the first approved vaccine for malaria, researchers are racing to develop even better shots that tackle the parasite at every stage of its life cycle.
- Cassandra Willyard
-
Outlook |
Malaria: highlights from research
A mosquito hibernation mystery solved, parasites grown in dishes for the first time, and other studies and trials.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
-
Outlook |
In search of a vaccine for Plasmodium vivax malaria
Vaccinologist Arturo Reyes-Sandoval explains how researchers are edging closer to a much-needed vaccine.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
-
Outlook |
Monoclonal antibodies show promise for malaria prevention
Immunologist Robert Seder and malaria epidemiologist Kassoum Kayentao talk to Nature about their work and how they think the parasitic disease could be controlled in the future.
- Cassandra Willyard
-
Outlook |
How genetically modified mosquitoes could eradicate malaria
Gene-drive technology that can spread antimalarial modifications throughout mosquito populations is maturing, but there are questions to answer before it can be used in the wild.
- Sam Jones
-
Outlook |
The slow roll-out of the world’s first malaria vaccine
After 30 years of development, there is finally a vaccine for malaria. But it might take years to get it to the children who need it.
- Cassandra Willyard
-
News & Views |
How a malaria parasite becomes a male
Organisms use various strategies for sex determination. The non-genetic mechanism in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, involving a male-specific factor, has now been revealed.
- Elisabet Tintó-Font
- & Alfred Cortés
-
Article |
In vitro production of infectious Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites
Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites produced in vitro recapitulate the P. falciparum life cycle from gametocyte to gametocyte without mosquitoes or primates.
- Abraham G. Eappen
- , Tao Li
- & Stephen L. Hoffman
-
Research Briefing |
Host–parasite dynamics in the liver stage of malaria
Gene expression was assessed in individual liver cells from mice that were infected with the rodent-specific form of the malaria parasite. This revealed that infections of cells in the inner zones of the lobule units that make up the liver are more likely to succeed than are infections in the outer zones.
-
News |
Resistant mosquito threatens Africa’s fight against malaria
Study links invasive Anopheles stephensi to a recent outbreak in Ethiopia, worrying scientists.
- Max Kozlov
-
Editorial |
Laggard rich countries risk slowing the fight against AIDS, malaria and TB
The United Kingdom and Italy need to renew their commitments to banish these major infectious killers from the world.
-
News |
Lifesaving fund to fight AIDS, malaria and TB falls short of $18-billion target
Pledges are ‘a drop in the ocean of needs’, says TB charity.
- T. V. Padma
-
News Round-Up |
Seafood carbon footprint, malaria vaccine and a US health chief
The latest science news, in brief.
-
News |
Malaria vaccine booster prolongs protection
Vaccine candidate provides two years of protection in young children when given as a booster, but larger trials are needed before it can be rolled out.
- Heidi Ledford
-
News |
After COVID, African countries vow to take the fight to malaria
Donors pledge more than US$4 billion in renewed bid to cut new malaria cases by 90%.
- T. V. Padma
-
Research Highlight |
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite night and day
Conventional tools to prevent mosquito bites are no use against those that attack during daylight hours.
-
News & Views |
From the archive: the link between mosquitoes and disease, and Mount Vesuvius erupts
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Nature Index |
African leadership underpins success of malaria drug trial
Urgent research to bolster disease defences demands equitable responsibility and ownership between partners.
- Mark Peplow
-
Article
| Open Access
Malaria protection due to sickle haemoglobin depends on parasite genotype
A strong association has been found between three regions of the Plasmodium falciparum genome and sickle haemoglobin in children with severe malaria, suggesting parasites have adapted to overcome natural host immunity.
- Gavin Band
- , Ellen M. Leffler
- & Dominic P. Kwiatkowski
-
Where I Work |
All-nighter: staying up to fight malaria
Victor Chaumeau collects mosquitoes in Myanmar to better understand how to control malaria.
- Brendan Maher
-
Nature Index |
Wolbachia goes to work in the war on mosquitoes
The bacterium has helped combat dengue, but can it be used to purge other mosquito-borne diseases?
- Sandy Ong
-
News |
Scientists hail historic malaria vaccine approval — but point to challenges ahead
The WHO-approved RTS,S vaccine has modest efficacy and requires a complex regimen of doses, so ample funding and clear communication will be crucial to success.
- Amy Maxmen
-
News |
Resistance to front-line malaria drugs confirmed in Africa
The artemisinin-based treatments are taking longer to clear infections. But they are still working — for now.
- Max Kozlov
-
News |
Vaccine innovation and COVID’s collateral damage — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.
-
News Round-Up |
CRISPR-therapy promise, malaria vaccine and pandemic parenting
The latest science news, in brief.
-
Article |
Two chemoattenuated PfSPZ malaria vaccines induce sterile hepatic immunity
Two malaria vaccines comprising Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites and treatment with either pyrimethamine or chloroquine induced durable protective responses against both the African vaccine strain and a heterologous South American strain of P. falciparum.
- Agnes Mwakingwe-Omari
- , Sara A. Healy
- & Patrick E. Duffy
-
News & Views |
Malaria vaccine gets a parasite boost in the liver
Effective malaria vaccines are urgently needed. Now, clinical evidence indicates that a vaccination approach that uses live parasites growing in the liver can generate high levels of immune protection from infection.
- Nana K. Minkah
- & Stefan H. I. Kappe
-
News |
Vaccine made of live malaria parasites shows early success
Strategy uses a combination of parasites and medicines to generate immunity while avoiding symptoms.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Nature Podcast |
What fruit flies could teach scientists about brain imaging
Ultra-precise measurements connect brain activity and energy use in individual fruit-fly neurons.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
-
News |
Malaria vaccine shows promise — now come tougher trials
Preliminary results suggest the vaccine is up to 77% effective in young children, but researchers await larger studies.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Article |
Structural basis of malaria RIFIN binding by LILRB1-containing antibodies
Plasmodium antigens called RIFINs bind to specific antibodies that incorporate the inhibitory receptor LILRB1 through its D3 domain, illustrating the principle of receptor-containing antibodies.
- Yiwei Chen
- , Kai Xu
- & Antonio Lanzavecchia
-
News |
Safety fears over drug hyped to treat the coronavirus spark global confusion
A study that suggested using hydroxychloroquine — a malaria drug — to treat people with COVID-19 could be dangerous has slowed clinical trials, but the study itself has also been questioned.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Article |
Anti-PfGARP activates programmed cell death of parasites and reduces severe malaria
Antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum glutamic-acid-rich protein (PfGARP), an antigen expressed on the surface of infected red blood cells, kill P. falciparum parasites by inducing programmed cell death and reduce the risk of severe malaria.
- Dipak K. Raj
- , Alok Das Mohapatra
- & Jonathan D. Kurtis
-
News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported efforts in 1970 to assess the economic benefits of scientific discoveries, and an update from 1870 on the search for the cause of malaria.
-
News & Views |
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes get a leg up on insecticides
A chemosensory protein enriched in the legs of malaria-carrying mosquitoes gives them resistance to insecticides used to treat bed nets. This discovery points to the challenges of tackling malaria.
- Flaminia Catteruccia
-
News |
Malaria cases are falling worldwide
The trend is driven by progress tackling the disease in southeast Asia, but elsewhere infections remain 'unacceptably high'.
- Giorgia Guglielmi
-
News Round-Up |
Space-funding hike, ‘risky’ collaborations and a novichok ban
The latest science news, in brief.
-
Outlook |
Building a better malaria vaccine
As the first vaccine against the malaria parasite begins to roll out, scientists are working on a wide variety of alternatives that they hope will provide more protection.
- Anthony King
-
News & Views |
Malaria mosquitoes go with the flow
The rapid return of mosquitoes to African semi-desert regions when the dry season ends was an unsolved mystery. A surprising solution to the puzzle is the long-range migration of mosquitoes on high-altitude winds.
- Nora J. Besansky
-
Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Leapfrogging speciation, and migrating mosquitoes
Hear the latest science news, with Shamini Bundell and Nick Howe.
Ancient malaria genome from Roman skeleton hints at disease’s history