By Bobbi Nodell and Alex Murphy

As 400,000 people a year are still being killed by malaria, researchers in Seattle are fervently working on a vaccine.

How close are they?

Well, they have several hurdles left but in the next 10 years, there very well could be a malaria vaccine given enough funding, said researchers Stefan Kappe and Jim Kublin, who are working on a vaccine candidate at the Center for Infectious Disease Research (CID Research) in Seattle.

Celebrating Earth Day this past weekend, over 20,000 people showed up to March for Science in Seattle on April 22 at Cal Anderson Park. The March lasted four hours, and among the crowd of students, advocates, professors, researchers, parents, concerned citizens, and even WA Governor Jay Inslee, was a large contingency from the University of Washington community.

By Kyleen Luhrs, Alee Perkins, Rachel Shaffer, Kelsey Sholund, Manahil Siddiqi, and Rebecca Wu, students at the University of Washington schools of medicine and public health. Manahil Siddiqi is pursuing a graduate certificate in the global health of women, adolescents and children.

As students at the University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Public Health, we are concerned about the lack of paid parental leave in Washington state.

Imagine a therapeutic device that children with cerebral palsy could wear at home to strengthen their legs and increase their mobility, eventually allowing them to walk without assistance.  Now imagine the device was low-tech and affordable, making it accessible to children around the globe who have limited or no access to expensive therapies that require robotics, supervision by a trained clinician, or invasive surgeries.