A paper just published in The Lancet reports on an encouraging result in a clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine called RTS,S. Previous trials had shown that the vaccine provides protection for children aged 1-4, but this new trial showed that it is both safe and effective in very young infants. Although further investigation remains to be done, the result is heartening because these babies are among the most vulnerable to infection with malaria. According to Nature magazine, “The latest trial raises hopes that the malaria vaccine riddle has been cracked, and that babies can now be protected for the first two years of their lives: a strategy that could prevent millions of deaths.”

On Wednesday October 24, the New York Academy of Sciences will host a symposium organized in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health titled Progress Against Malaria: Developments on the Horizon. Among presentations by nearly a dozen top malaria researchers, the event will feature a talk by Christian Loucq, director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which sponsored the successful trial of RTS,S. The meeting will also include discussion of new diagnostic tests, prevention and treatment strategies, and malaria-resistant mosquitoes, as well as recent work in Macha, Zambia, where malaria research is conducted in a unique rural setting. To register or to learn more about the event, visit the NYAS Web site.

Click here to listen to a Science & the City podcast with Angelique Corthals, a biological anthropologist who—in addition to her work on the genetics of ancient mummies—studies the social and landscape processes underlying endemism of malaria in the peruvian Amazon.