Australian Researchers Discover ‘World First’ Malaria Breakthrough

Scientists at Melbourne’s biotechnology company AdAlta and LaTrobe University have achieved a “groundbreaking” milestone for malaria. They discovered a molecule, known as i-body, which mimics the properties of an antibody. This i-body can block malaria parasites from invading red blood cells and liver cells. For the first time, this i-body demonstrated the ability to bind multiple strains of malaria, stopping invasion with high potency. Malaria, a life-threatening disease spread by mosquitos to humans, causes hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world each year. Local transmission of malaria has been found in Florida and Texas recently, for the first time since 2003....