Malaria causes more than 300 million clinical cases and more than 1 million deaths annually. A protective vaccine would therefore have tremendous impact on global health. It has been established that a radiation attenuated or genetically attenuated vaccine can be used to generate protective immune responses.

Following on Seattle BioMed's success of a live attenuated vaccine in the rodent malaria model, Seattle BioMed has launched a new facility that is equipped to cultivate and produce the human form of the malaria parasite for clinical trials.

The Center for Mosquito Production and Malaria Infection Research (CeMPMIR) grows and infects live mosquitoes to obtain the malaria life cycle. The sporozoite form of the malaria parasite is harvested by dissecting the salivary gland of the infected Anopheles mosquito. In addition to vaccine studies, the parasites are used by Seattle BioMed’s malaria program for further molecular biological research, including gene expression studies, relevant immune assays, and proteomic analysis to look for drug targets.

This facility is equipped with two Insectary spaces that include a warm room for rearing mosquitoes from eggs to adults, procedure rooms, stereomicroscope workstations for mosquito dissections, and tissue culture rooms. The Insectary conforms to Arthropod Containment level 2 guidelines published by the American Committee of Medical Entomology of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

The CeMPMIR facility is overseen by Insectary Co-Directors Kent Irwin and Dr. Stefan Kappe, and staffed with a Core Manager and several experienced technicians.  To get more information, please contact the Core Manager, John Whisler at (206) 256-7441.