Future directions in vaccines: the payoffs of basic research

Abstract

Vaccine development has historically relied on approaches such as live attenuated, subunit, and whole-cell vaccine designs to present antigens to the immune system. These strategies are no longer nimble enough to rapidly address public health threats, particularly emerging infectious diseases. New vaccines will require a strong scientific base partnered with the leveraging of emerging and enabling technologies so that candidate vaccines can be developed more rapidly and with the greatest chance of proving effective. This paper focuses on new strategies, technologies, and immunologic research that will provide important opportunities for the development of new and improved vaccines.