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Angela Minassian
MA (Cantab), MRCP, DPhil, FRCPath
Associate Professor
- Chief Investigator Malaria Vaccine Clinical Trials
- Research Fellow Wolfson College
- Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
- Vice-Chair Graduate Studies Committee (Medical Sciences Division)
I am an infectious diseases physician by training and lead a clinical malaria vaccine programme at the University of Oxford. This involves testing first-time-in-human vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, incorporating controlled human malaria infection to test vaccine efficacy.
I am passionate about building relationships and transferring skills to empower the research teams where malaria is endemic, and our trials now span Phase 1/2 in the UK and across East and West Africa. I also currently co-lead the EDCTP3-funded 2nd-Generation Malaria Vaccine Consortium (MVC-2G).
Using the platform of the malaria human challenge model I also conduct experimental medicine research to explore mechanisms of disease tolerance, and am developing a novel model of relapse for Plasmodium vivax. I have also run clinical trials of vaccines against emerging pathogens and have an interest in developing new human challenge models of infection with which to assess new vaccines.
Recent publications
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Heterologous COVID-19 vaccine schedule with protein-based prime (NVX-CoV2373) and mRNA boost (BNT162b2) induces strong humoral responses: results from COV-BOOST trial.
Janani L. et al, (2025), J Infect
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Plasmodium falciparum infection induces T cell tolerance that is associated with decreased disease severity upon re-infection.
Muñoz Sandoval D. et al, (2025), J Exp Med, 222
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An experimental model of clinical immunity for human malaria
Hou MM. et al, (2025)
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Safety and efficacy of the blood-stage malaria vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M in Burkina Faso: interim results of a double-blind, randomised, controlled phase 2b trial in children
Natama HM. et al, (2024)
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Natural malaria infection elicits rare but potent neutralizing antibodies to the blood-stage antigen RH5.
Wang LT. et al, (2024), Cell, 187, 4981 - 4995.e14