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A mother and infant in Malawi have the same repertoire of antibodies to  Plasmodium falciparum , the malaria parasite. That suggests that boosting the mother's immune response to malaria, as via vaccination, will result in better protection for the infant. The research is published August 23rd in  Clinical and Vaccine Immunology . A pregnant woman's antibodies pass from her blood across the placenta, into the fetus, thereby providing some protection against infection at birth. "In sub-Saharan Africa, protection against malaria infection is very important," said corresponding author Miriam K. Laufer, MD, MPH, Director, Division of Malaria Research, Institute for Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Malaria parasites do their damage when they invade the host's red blood cells. Each P. falciparum parasite has a handful of different surface antigens that it expresses on the surfaces of the blood cells that it has invaded. But collectively, ...