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Inventing the second malaria vaccine with Katharine Collins

2026-05-27 · 08:03 UTC ·Works in Progress ·2 min read

Brief

Katharine Collins, co‑inventor of the R21 particle‑based malaria vaccine, appears on a ~2‑hour Works in Progress interview (published 2026‑05‑27). The tutorial‑style conversation details her PhD reverse‑engineering workflow, rodent and human challenge work, the parasite’s multi‑stage biology, and the technical plus financial barriers to scaling R21 to billions of doses.

Why it matters

Katharine Collins co‑invented R21—the second malaria vaccine and a particle‑based candidate—while completing her PhD (thesis: 'R21, a novel particle based vaccine...' 2014); she recounts the reverse‑engineering steps and key eureka moments that produced the candidate.

Key details

  • Malaria’s complex, shape‑shifting parasite and multi‑stage life cycle necessitate rodent (mouse) models and controlled human infection/challenge studies; those biological hurdles (mouse work at ~46:15, volunteer infection discussion ~55:51–1:08:21) slowed vaccine development.
  • Moving R21 from bench to billions of doses requires both manufacturing solutions and stronger financial incentives; the episode (Works in Progress, published 2026-05-27, ~2:05 runtime) compares vaccine candidates, asks if progress could have been faster, and considers whether better vaccines could be made today.
Source evidence

Malaria is caused not by a virus or bacterium, but by a complex, shape-shifting parasite that has evolved alongside us for millennia. This has made vaccine development a brutal challenge.

In this episode, Jacob and Saloni are joined by Katharine Collins, who co-invented the second malaria vaccine, called R21, during her PhD. They discuss the gruelling process of reverse-engineering a vaccine and eureka moments along the way. They ask whether the biggest barriers to new vaccines are scientific or financial, and what it will take to finally eradicate one of natureʼs most vicious killers.

Hard Drugs is a podcast from Works in Progress about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
05:08 Our favourite parasites
10:12 How to invent a vaccine during your PhD
34:18 Why is it called the R21 vaccine?
37:32 Moving from the bench to billions of doses
41:43 The vicious life cycle of malaria parasites
46:15 Malaria research IN MICE
53:03 The murderer in malaria research
55:51 Would you volunteer to get infected by malaria?
1:08:21 Why did the first malaria vaccine take so long?
1:18:26 Could we have had the vaccine sooner?
1:40:48 Vaccine versus vaccine: which one’s better?
1:46:53 If we did this again today, could we make better vaccines?
2:04:55 Conclusion and our reasons for pessimism and optimism

You can watch or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Saloni’s substack newsletter: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/
Jacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/

Acknowledgements:
Aria Babu, editor at Works in Progress
Graham Bessellieu, video editor
Alice Edwards, captions
Abhishaike Mahajan, cover art
Atalanta Arden-Miller, art direction
David Hackett, composer

Thesis
Katharine Collins (2014). R21, a novel particle based vaccine for a multi-component approach to malaria vaccination.
Books
R. Killick-Kendrick (2012). Rodent Malaria.
Michael Kremer and Rachel Glennerster (2004). Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases.
Articles and reports
Saloni Dattani (2023). Why we didn’t get a malaria vaccine sooner. https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-we-didnt-get-a-malaria-vaccine-sooner/
Jerome P Vanderberg (2010). Reflections on Early Malaria Vaccine Studies, the First Successful Human Malaria Vaccination, and Beyond https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2637529/
Pratik Pawar (2022). It Took 35 years to Get a Malaria Vaccine. Why? https://undark.org/2022/05/25/it-took-35-years-to-get-a-malaria-vaccine-why/
Ernst R. Berndt, Rachel Glennerster, Michael R. Kremer, Jean Lee, Ruth Levine, Georg Weizsacker & Heidi Williams (2005) Advanced Purchase Commitments for a Malaria Vaccine: Estimating Costs and Effectiveness. https://www.nber.org/papers/w11288
Ryan Duncombe, Karam Elabd and Justin Sandefur (2024). Avoiding Another Lost Decade on Malaria Vaccines https://www.cgdev.org/publication/avoiding-another-lost-decade-malaria-vaccines

Channel: Works in Progress
Published: 2026-05-27
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxT3T9mLANs