For 70 years, the Ifakara Health Institute has stood at the edge of one of science’s hardest frontiers: a vaccine against malaria.

Unlike measles or polio, malaria isn’t caused by a simple virus or bacterium, but by the constantly shifting parasite Plasmodium falciparum. It hides in the liver, multiplies silently, then invades red blood cells—changing form as it moves and stay one step ahead of the immune system.

That complexity has made a vaccine extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Yet across decades, Ifakara has stayed in the fight—testing, refining, and helping turn early setbacks into real, life-saving progress.

The puzzle: why malaria is so hard to vaccinate against

A malaria vaccine is not aiming at a single target. Scientists must decide when in the parasite’s life cycle to strike.

Some vaccines try to stop infection before the parasite even reaches the blood. Others aim to reduce severity once infection begins. Even partial protection matters. In malaria-endemic regions, reducing illness—even without full immunity—can save thousands of lives when combined with bed nets, treatment, and mosquito control.

The early years: SPf66 and cautious hope

Ifakara’s vaccine journey began at the very start of global efforts.

In 1992, researchers at Ifakara participated in one of the earliest field trials of a synthetic malaria vaccine—SPf66, developed by Colombian scientist Manuel Patarroyo. It was the first time the world tested such a vaccine on a large scale outside Latin America.

The anticipation was enormous. For the first time, there was real hope that malaria might be preventable through immunization.

But the results in Ifakara were modest. Among young children, the vaccine reduced clinical malaria by about 31 percent. The immune response was weak, and protection limited.

It was not the breakthrough scientists wanted. But it was something just as important: proof that partial protection was possible—and that the scientific journey would need to go further, deeper, and more precisely.

A turning point: RTS,S reshapes expectations

Years later, a new generation of vaccines changed the tone of the global conversation.

RTS,S/AS01 became the first malaria vaccine to receive broad recommendation for use - and Ifakara is proud to be part of this global initiative. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially endorsed this vaccine for children at risk in October 2021. Unlike earlier attempts, it was designed to stop the parasite immediately after a mosquito bite—before it could reach the bloodstream.

Ifakara played a key role in evaluating its safety and feasibility in Tanzanian infants, including how it could fit into routine childhood immunization systems. Early findings confirmed that it was safe and could reduce infections in young children.

Across multiple African sites, including Tanzania, further trials helped refine the RTS,S vaccine’s performance and confirmed its value as part of a broader malaria control toolkit. However, a 2024 paper on its evaluation concludes that while RTS,S remains a significant step forward in reducing malaria burden, its protection is only partial and not long-lasting. The findings underscore the need to improve the vaccine’s design to achieve more durable and effective protection against malaria.

Raising the bar: R21 and a stronger second wave

Building on RTS,S, Ifakara researchers and colleagues from other centers from around the world pushed for something more powerful and more scalable.

The result was R21/Matrix-M, developed with partners including the University of Oxford. Like RTS,S, it targets the parasite early—but it carries more of the malaria antigen and is paired with a potent immune booster known as Matrix-M, designed to strengthen and extend protection.

In October 2021, researchers in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, administered the first doses to children as part of a multi-country trial spanning Tanzania, Kenya, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

By 2023, the World Health Organization recommended its use. For countries battling malaria every day, it added a new and practical tool in the fight to protect children.

The next horizon: SUM-101 and what comes next

Even with two vaccines now in the global arsenal, the search is far from over.

Scientists are still asking: Can protection last longer? Can vaccines be easier to deliver? Can they work across different environments and populations?

In 2025, a new candidate—SUM-101—offered early signs of progress. In its first trial among malaria-exposed adults in Tanzania, the vaccine was found to be safe, well tolerated, and capable of triggering a strong immune response.

It is an early step, but an important one. The trial brought together researchers from Ifakara, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the University of Basel, Sumaya Biotech, and Heidelberg University Hospital—reflecting how global the fight against malaria has become.

What makes SUM-101 particularly exciting is not just what it does — but where it strikes. Unlike RTS,S and R21, which target the parasite before it reaches the bloodstream, SUM-101 takes aim at the blood stage — fighting the parasite after it has already broken through the first line of defence. That difference matters. 

It means SUM-101 is not a replacement for existing vaccines, but a potential partner to them — attacking malaria at a different point in its life cycle and, in doing so, closing gaps that earlier vaccines could not reach. 

Strikingly, the trial also found that people who already had some natural immunity to malaria responded even more strongly to the vaccine — a finding that sets SUM-101 apart and makes it especially promising for high-transmission regions like Tanzania, where most people carry years of prior exposure.

Tanzania in the global story

From SPf66 to RTS,S, from R21 to SUM-101, Ifakara has been present at every major turn in malaria vaccine science.

What began as participation in early trials has evolved into a central role in shaping global evidence—and helping determine what works, what fails, and what comes next.

As Ifakara celebrates 70 years of research, its contribution to malaria vaccines tells a powerful story: progress may take time, but persistence saves lives.