Even though the malarial parasite was discovered by Sir Ronald Ross in late 1890s, when working in Secunderabad, mankind has been unable to device an effective vaccine against it till date.
He may have won the largest prize money that India can offer a scientist — Rs 50lakh, science award from Infosys Science Foundation — but for Chetan E Chitnis that is merely incidental in his journey towards the real prize.
If his bets do pay off, Chitnis could be the face behind a major breakthrough, of the sort that literally happens once in centuries — a vaccine for preventing malarial infection.
Even though the malarial parasite was discovered by Sir Ronald Ross in late 1890s, when working in Secunderabad, mankind has been unable to device an effective vaccine against it till date.
Based on Chitnis’ research into the ways through which malarial parasite attaches to a human blood cell, Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech has made a test vaccine, which is currently being administered to 45 healthy volunteers at a site in Bangalore by contract research firm Lotus Labs to assess and evaluate its safety and effectiveness. “Results of the first phase of human trials are expected in December 2011,” Chitnis told DNA of his vaccine.
For him, this is the culmination of about 10 years of research. Chitnis is currently a staff research scientist and principal investigator in the Malaria Research Group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Asked about how soon a vaccine could be available in the market, the scientist was very guarded.
“It all depends on the results, and we might even have to go back to the lab,” the scientist said, choosing to keep his cards very close to his chest.
Even though he has not decided what to do with the tax free Rs50 lakh that he got with the Infosys Science award, Chitnis believes funding would not be a big problem for his research.
“If the results are good, pharmaceutical companies would be interested and willing to take it to the market,” he said. The community of scientific observers point out that this is the first time a vaccine candidate gets into human trial phase in India and that there is definitely potential in this.
“There are several firsts associated with this vaccine and even if it fails, we would have gained a lot of useful information in the process and that can only help take us closer to eventual success,” said T Adak, senior scientist at National Institute of Malarial Research. Adak has been actively involved in collecting epidemiological field data regarding the malarial parasite, which was used in the research that went into developing the vaccine candidate.
Even more hopeful is the jury at Infosys Science Foundation that selected Chitnis for the 2010 award. In its citation, the jury said his work narrowed down the research that goes into finding a vaccine for malaria.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}