We developed a novel suicide strategy to restrict Plasmodium liver stage development through parasite-encoded murine IL6. To this end, we engineered transgenic Pb parasites to express and secrete high levels of the murine IL-6 cytokine restricted to the liver stage and found that these mutants cause an attenuated infection and confer a long-lasting cross-species protective antimalarial immunity. Here, IL6 is linked to infection.