The contribution of Plasmodium chabaudi to our understanding of malaria

Malaria kills close to a million people every year, mostly children under the age of five. In the drive towards the development of an effective vaccine and new chemotherapeutic targets for malaria, field-based studies on human malaria infection and laboratory-based studies using animal models of malaria offer complementary opportunities to further our understanding of the mechanisms behind malaria infection and pathology. We outline here the parallels between the Plasmodium chabaudi mouse model of malaria and human malaria. We will highlight the contribution of P. chabaudi to our understanding of malaria in particular, how the immune response in malaria infection is initiated and regulated, its role in pathology, and how immunological memory is maintained. We will also discuss areas where new tools have opened up potential areas of exploration using this invaluable model system.