A Phase 1 interventional study of PfSPZ Challenge (NF54) and Wearable Biosensor Devices in Malaria (Plasmodium Falciparum), sponsored by University of Maryland, Baltimore. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-09.
Sponsored by University of Maryland, Baltimore · Phase 1, Interventional, and Diagnostic
Among 12 studies testing PfSPZ Challenge in Malaria, Falciparum — 1 open to participants now, 1 under way, none of them phase 3. PfSPZ Challenge · Malaria, Falciparum.
Among the 12 studies testing PfSPZ Challenge in Malaria, Falciparum, this one is the 6th largest by planned enrollment, is the only one that started in 2026, is one of 11 in phase 1, and was the 12th registered.
455 studies on the registry are indexed under Malaria, Falciparum; 37 are open to participants now.
Browse Malaria, Falciparum studies →1 of the 12 studies testing PfSPZ Challenge in Malaria, Falciparum is open now, in 1 country.
By country, each count listing its studies:
No approval found in the FDA or EMA files read. How studies give it is on its page →
Of the 21 Malaria, Falciparum studies recruiting now, 5 (24%) set no upper age limit and 15 (71%) stop at 75 or younger; 14 take children under 18; 9 take healthy volunteers.
This study: 18 Years to 50 Years · all sexes · healthy volunteers too.
The full table on the hub →This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
12 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.
A study in two phases is counted once above. Listed by phase, each with its combined phases: Phase 1 12 · Phase 2 1
First in 2010; this study’s year is marked. 1 started in 2026.
This study's planned enrollment of 32 is below the median of 126 across 376 interventional studies indexed under Malaria, Falciparum.
Median enrollment 31 across the 12 interventional studies. Of the 10 that completed or were terminated, 0 (0%) have results posted.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
10 of 12 have an industry lead sponsor. The 3 most frequent:
University of Maryland, Baltimore is the lead sponsor of 700 studies on the registry; 132 are open to participants now.
Of its 92 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 66 (72%) have results posted.
University of Maryland, Baltimore has 4 studies filed under Malaria, Falciparum — fewer than ten, so there is no comparison to draw.
1 of the studies testing PfSPZ Challenge in Malaria, Falciparum that are under way reach primary completion within a year, 0 of them phase 3. Phase 3 first, then by date:
| Study | Primary completion |
|---|---|
| NCT07558122University of Maryland, BaltimoreMalaria CVD 36000; Gates INV090205 | 2026-12 |
Among the 12 studies testing PfSPZ Challenge in Malaria, Falciparum, from their registry updates:
Nothing recorded among them since 2026-09-25.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
In order to control infections, the investigators must first detect them. Biosensor devices may allow early detection and intervention for infectious diseases, helping the investigators to recognize infections early, and allow for early treatment. This will lower transmission of infections and lower costs for treating someone who becomes ill. This is a study testing whether a wearable device such as a wristband and/or earphones can measure early biologic signals to detect identify infection in prior to seeing symptoms related of a disease. As a first test of this technology, the investigators will expose participants to injectable malaria or placebo. This is called a "Controlled Human Malaria Infection" (CHMI). Everyone who takes part in the CHMI may get malaria infection. The investigators will detect malaria using standard blood tests. The investigators will also look for early symptoms of malaria infection like changes in temperature, heart rate, breathing, sleep patterns, and changes in skin and muscle activity or voice. These signals may allow the investigators to detect early malaria infection. This is a study testing whether a wearable device such as a wristband and/or earphones can measure early biologic signals to detect malaria infection before symptoms occur, as confirmed by standard blood testing.
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.
Participants physically capable of pregnancy must agree to use effective to avoid pregnancy from 28 days before enrollment through 10 months after last administration of product are eligible to participate. An effective contraceptive method is defined as one that results in a failure rate of less than 1% per year when it is used consistently and correctly. Adequate contraceptive precautions include intrauterine contraceptive device, oral contraceptives, diaphragm, or condom in combination with contraceptive jelly, cream, or foam; Norplant® or Depo-Provera®, through the completion of study visits to minimize any potential risk.
i. Effective contraception does not apply to participants of with same sex partners, when this is their preferred and usual lifestyle.
ii. Adequate contraception does not apply to women with documented surgical sterility (tubal ligation, bilateral oophorectomy, salpingectomy, or hysterectomy), congenital sterility, who have a diagnosis of infertility and are not undergoing treatment, or women who have not had a menstrual period in at least 1 year
Exclusion Criteria:
Participant seropositive for surface antigen (HBsAg), virus antibodies (anti-HCV), or antibodies (anti-HIV).
Note: Prior participants of HIV vaccine studies may result in a false positive HIV antibody test, as such, in this scenario, participant will be eligible if they have a negative HIV RNA PCR at screening.
Safety laboratory test results within range at screening (as per FDA Toxicity Grading Scale, see Appendix A):
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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).
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
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.
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.
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
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.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
BMI (body mass index)
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
0.5 mL single-dose of PfSPZ Challenge (strain NF54)
Biological: PfSPZ Challenge (NF54) · Device: Wearable Biosensor Devices
Normale saline placebo
Device: Wearable Biosensor Devices · Other: Placebo
PfSPZ Challenge (NF54) administered as a single dose by direct venous inoculation (DVI)
Investigational, wearable biosensing devices. The objective would be to collect biosensor data for correlation to known malaria infection by reference diagnostic testing and with physiological (clinical) data.
Normal saline placebo
Presence of detectable malaria parasitemia following controlled human malaria infection exposure by the Direct Venous Inoculation (DVI) of cryopreserved P. falciparum NF54-strain sporozoites
Presence or absence of RT-qPCR through Day 28 (unit - Ct value)
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Presence of detectable malaria parasitemia following controlled human malaria infection exposure by the Direct Venous Inoculation (DVI) of cryopreserved P. falciparum NF54-strain sporozoites
Presence of absence of Thick Blood Smear - unit - parasite/mm3 or mL
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Time of detectable malaria parasitemia following controlled human malaria infection exposure by the Direct Venous Inoculation (DVI) of cryopreserved P. falciparum NF54-strain sporozoites
Time to Pf infection (unit - days)
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Presence or absence of temperature associated with pre-infection, asymptomatic parasitemia and symptomatic parasitemia
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Presence or absence of heart Rate changes associated with pre-infection, asymptomatic parasitemia and symptomatic parasitemia
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Presence or absence of Respiratory Rate associated with pre-infection, asymptomatic parasitemia and symptomatic parasitemia
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Presence or absence of Solicited Systemic Symptoms associated with pre-infection, asymptomatic parasitemia and symptomatic parasitemia
(yes/no to headache, fatigue/malaise, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting)
Time frame: From challenge to the end of participation at day 56
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Nov 2026; primary completion for Dec 2026, 1 month later.
Of 29 non-industry phase 1 interventional studies under Malaria, Falciparum, half reached primary completion within 12 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 24. This study's planned 1 month is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 49 studies reached it within 13 months; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 18.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
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Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Studies of the drug tested here: PfSPZ Challenge
University of Maryland, Baltimore →