Post by WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

How do changes in malaria parasites affect the tools we use to track infection? New WEHI research helps answer a long‑standing question in global malaria control. Our researchers investigated how 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘹 antigenic diversity – the natural genetic variation in parasite proteins – affects the performance of serological biomarkers used to detect recent exposure.  By pairing global bioinformatic analyses with laboratory testing, their new study provides one of the rare direct assessments of how sequence diversity influences antibody binding. The results are encouraging: despite substantial variation in several key antigens, most continued to perform effectively as serological biomarkers. Where diversity did have an impact, these effects could be overcome by incorporating responses to multiple antigens, strengthening overall diagnostic accuracy. These insights are already informing WEHI’s malaria serological marker development program, which has now supported and trained more than 14 laboratories in malaria‑endemic regions. An important collaboration – co‑led by Dr Rhea Longley and Professor Ivo Mueller together with Professor Alyssa Barry and colleagues from Deakin University – that highlights how integrating genomics, immunology and field‑based research can drive the development of tools vital for malaria elimination. Congratulations to joint first authors, early career researchers Alison Paolo Bareng and Kenneth W., on this work, published in Lancet Microbe (The Lancet Group). Read the full paper: https://lnkd.in/gATACdBd  📸 A variant network map showing the diversity of RBP2a antigen in Plasmodium vivax.