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Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground The protozoa Plasmodium falciparum still remains a major global health problem. It is a leading cause of death among children under the age of five and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa [1,2]. The increasing prob-lem of drug resistance and the limited effect of vector control interventions make a call for a malaria vaccine urgent [3]. The P. falciparum blood stage invasion involves many complex interactions between merozoite antigens and erythrocyte receptors. There are two main merozoite in-vasion families: erythrocyte binding-like (EBL) proteins and reticulocyte binding protein homologue (RBP/PfRh) proteins [4,5]. The EBL proteins include the erythrocyte binding antigens (EBAs), which are found in the micro-nemes of the merozoite and include EBA140, EBA175 and EBA181. The PfRh proteins are located in th