using molecular techniques we decreased the amount of pfsea1 that parasites could produce and demonstrated that these altered parasites had a significant growth defect more importantly antibodies to pfseas prevent the parasites from escaping from red blood cells presumably by interfering with the function of pfsea1 according to dr kurtis there are three major areas for further study first we need to understand the role that pfsea1 plays in the process of parasite egress from red blood cells cellular immunity is critical for longlived antibody responses but detailed analysis of cellular responses requires fresh blood samples thus we are currently planning to enroll new cohorts in east africa to address this question we also need to move pfsea1based vaccines into nonhuman primate challenge trials using humanuse approved vaccine adjuvants following successful nonhuman primate studies phase i safety trials in humans can begin he said the most recent figures from the world health organization suggest the disease killed more than 600000 people in 2012 with 90 of these deaths occurring in subsaharan africa