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Abstract
According to Wilson, McGregor had a rapport with indigenous communities that had enabled him to gather blood samples from people infected with malaria, including children. Brian Greenwood, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says McGregor's work provided the first indication that it would be possible to develop a malaria vaccine: “Before this study was done, it was known that after repeated exposure to malaria, adults developed some protection against severe forms of the infection but this study showed for the first time that this was mediated, at least in part, by something present in serum, almost certainly antibodies.” According to Greenwood, McGregor's greatest contribution was showing the value of painstaking longitudinal studies to tease out the contributions of factors, including climate, nutrition, and infection, to overall health.