The Parasitology Department of the U.S. Naval Medical and Research Unit No. 6 (NAMRU-6) in Lima, Peru is seeking to test the infection-blocking capabilities of novel antibodies and drugs. These tests require the in vitro culture of primary hepatocytes to mimic the liver environment where the malaria parasite first infects. We intend to perform hepatocytes infection-blocking assays utilizing our unique access to mosquitos infected with the causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium.

These assays are expensive, time-consuming and require careful coordination between multiple research sites to generate the infected mosquitos needed. In addition, when testing multiple compounds or antibodies across time a consistently infectable hepatocyte lot is needed to ensure data quality. Thus, we require a large lot of hepatocytes known to be infectable with Plasmodium vivax, which only BioIVT is able to provide.

BioIVT is a leader in cryopreservation of viable, plateable and infection-permissive hepatocytes and their products were used to develop the only assay capable of testing infection of Plasmodium vivax and interventions against infection by our collaborators at WRAIR and other academic institutions. Furthermore, Bio IVT is a known provider of these cells both to us and to our partners at WRAIR, who have validated the assay with these cells to be permissive to Plasmodium vivax infection.