Swiss researchers develop antibody test

ETH Zurich professor Peter Seeberger has been working on a sugar-based malaria vaccine for years. The new test takes him one important step closer to his goal. The malaria pathogen plasmodium falciparum carries poisonous sugar molecules – called GPIs for short – on its surface that are able to be individually identified. Professor See-berger’s research team is now developing a new method that demonstrates that the malaria pathogen’s toxic sugar molecules trigger a specific immune reaction in adults.