ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT02639299Updated Aug 28, 2026

Screening of Healthy Volunteers for Investigational Antimalarial Drugs, Malaria Vaccines, and Controlled Human Malaria Challenge

An observational study in Malaria, sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-28.

Sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Dec 2016; still recruiting 9 years 11 months later.
Study type
Observational
Model
Other
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrollment
1,500
Ages
18 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Background:

Malaria is a serious infection caused by a parasite. People get malaria when an infected mosquito bites them. Malaria can cause major health and social problems in places were malaria is common, such as Africa but can also affect travelers who have never been exposed to malaria. Researchers at the NIH want to find a safe and effective malaria vaccine, antimalarial drugs, or prevention regimen. To do this, healthy volunteers are recruited under a general screening study in order to see if are qualified to join a future malaria study.

Objective:

To screen healthy volunteers to see if they are eligible to join investigational malaria studies. The studies will be trials of investigational antimalarial drugs, malaria vaccines, or prevention regimens. They may also involve controlled human malaria infection trials.

Eligibility:

Healthy people ages 18 50

Design:

Participants will first be prescreened by phone.

Participants will be screened with:

Medical history

Physical exam

Blood and urine tests

Participants may go more than 1 year without joining a clinical trial. If this happens, they may be re-contacted to see if they still want to be part of this screening protocol. Those who still want to participate and have had relevant medical changes will be rescreened.

Read the detailed description

This is a screening protocol for healthy volunteers to participate in research studies conducted by Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology (LMIV).

Malaria-related morbidity and mortality have a major economic impact in endemic regions and

present a substantial health risk to non-immune travelers and people living in endemic areas. To stem the worldwide impact of this devastating disease, a safe and broadly effective malaria vaccine and improved antimalarial therapeutics are urgently required.

This screening protocol is designed to continuously evaluate potential healthy volunteers to build a pool of volunteers who may participate in future and ongoing LMIV malaria drug, vaccine, or controlled human malaria infections (CHMI) trials. A complete medical history and blood and urine samples will be obtained to evaluate whether volunteers are eligible for study-specific screening.

02

Conditions studied

  • Malaria

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Keywords

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03

In context

Malaria

1,184 studies on the registry are indexed under Malaria; 79 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 1,500 is above the median of 582 across 204 observational studies indexed under Malaria.

Browse Malaria studies →

Lead sponsor

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is the lead sponsor of 2,446 studies on the registry; 179 are open to participants now.

Of its 405 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 302 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

healthy volunteers in the Washington, DC region

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

All of the following criteria must be fulfilled for a subject to participate in this trial:

  1. Age >= 18 and \<= 50 years.
  2. In good general health and without medical history
  3. Reliable access to the clinical trial center and available in the area for more than 1 year
  4. Females of must be willing to undergo periodic pregnancy testing and use reliable per protocol when enrolled into LMIV clinical trials (protocol-specific requirements)

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

A subject will be excluded from participating in this trial if any one of the following criteria is fulfilled:

  1. Pregnant, breastfeeding, or planned pregnancy in the upcoming year.
  2. , white blood cell (WBC), , (ALT), and creatinine (Cr) outside of local lab normal range (subjects may be included at the investigator's discretion for "not " values outside of normal range).
  3. Anticipated use during the study period, or use within the following periods prior to enrollment:

    1. malaria vaccine within the last five years
    2. Chronic systemic medications (e.g., cytotoxic medications, oral/parental > 0.5 mg/kg/day prednisone or equivalent). Corticosteroid nasal spray for allergic rhinitis and topical corticosteroids for mild, uncomplicated dermatitis is allowed.
    3. Recurrent receipt of blood products or immunoglobulins
  4. History of:

    1. Sickle cell disease
    2. Splenectomy or functional asplenia
    3. Systemic anaphylaxis
    4. Uncontrolled psoriasis or porphyria
  5. Clinically significant medical condition, physical examination findings, other clinically significant abnormal laboratory results, or past medical history that may have clinically significant implications for current health status and participation in the study in the opinion of the Investigator. A clinically significant condition or process includes but is not limited to:

    1. A process that would affect the immune response, or requires medication that affects the immune response.
    2. Any to repeated phlebotomy.
  6. History of or known active cardiac disease including:

    1. prior myocardial infarction (heart attack)
    2. angina pectoris
    3. congestive heart failure
    4. valvular heart disease
    5. cardiomyopathy
    6. pericarditis
    7. stroke or
    8. exertional chest pain or shortness of breath
    9. other heart conditions under the care of a doctor
  7. Infection with , , and/or
  8. Psychiatric condition that precludes compliance with the protocol including but not limited to:

    1. Psychosis within the past 3 years
    2. Ongoing risk for suicide, or history of suicide attempt or gesture within the past 3 years
  9. Suspected or known current alcohol or drug abuse as defined by the American Psychiatric Association in the , Fifth Edition at the discretion of the PI
  10. Any other finding that, in the judgment of the Investigator, would interfere with, or serve as a contraindication to, protocol adherence, assessment of safety or reactogenicity, or a subject's ability to give , or increase the risk of having an adverse outcome from participating in the study
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(16)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

DSM diagnostic criteria

The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Observational model
Other
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrollment
1,500 participants (estimated)

Groups and cohorts

  • Healthy volunteer

    healthy, malaria-na(SqrRoot) ve US adults

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To screen healthy volunteers for future malaria studies

    identify healthy adults at a low risk of developing complications due to experimental malaria infection, investigational antimalarials and vaccines

    Time frame: 1 year

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
    Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States
    Recruiting
    • For more information at the NIH Clinical Center contact National Cancer Institute Referral Office · Contact888-624-1937
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References and documents

Publications

  • YOELI M. STUDIES ON PLASMODIUM BERGHEI IN NATURE AND UNDER EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1965 May;59:255-76. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(65)90004-0. No abstract available. PubMed 14298028 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — This is a screening protocol for healthy volunteers to participate in research studies conducted by Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology (LMIV).@@@@@@@@@@@@This screening protocol is designed to evaluate potential healthy volunteers to build a pool of volunteers who may participate in future and ongoing LMIV malaria drug, vaccine, or controlled human malaria infections (CHMI) trials. Data obtained for individual subjects will used not be used for direct research purposes on this study; therefore we will not make IPD available at this time.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Dec 2016 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Sep 2030, 165 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Dec 23, 2015
First posted
Dec 24, 2015
StartActual
Dec 8, 2016
Primary completionEst.
Sep 30, 2030
CompletionEst.
Sep 30, 2030
Last update
Aug 28, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 28, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02639299
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 24, 2015
Start date
Dec 8, 2016
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2030 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 30, 2030 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 28, 2026

Study contacts

David M Cook, M.D.
Contact
cookdm@mail.nih.gov
(240) 627-3066
David M Cook, M.D.
principal investigator · National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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