Vaccinomics and a new paradigm for the development of preventive vaccines against viral infections

Abstract

In this article we define vaccinomics as the integration of immunogenetics and immunogenomics with systems biology and immune profiling. Vaccinomics is based on the use of cutting edge, high-dimensional (so called "omics") assays and novel bioinformatics approaches to the development of next-generation vaccines and the expansion of our capabilities in individualized medicine. Vaccinomics will allow us to move beyond the empiric "isolate, inactivate, and inject" approach characterizing past vaccine development efforts, and toward a more detailed molecular and systemic understanding of the carefully choreographed series of biological processes involved in developing viral vaccine-induced "immunity." This enhanced understanding will then be applied to overcome the obstacles to the creation of effective vaccines to protect against pathogens, particularly hypervariable viruses, with the greatest current impact on public health. Here we provide an overview of how vaccinomics will inform vaccine science, the development of new vaccines and/or clinically relevant biomarkers or surrogates of protection, vaccine response heterogeneity, and our understanding of immunosenescence.

FIG. 1.

Vaccinomics approach to new vaccine development. Vaccinomics is the application of multidimensional science to the understanding of biologic and immunologic vaccine response and variability in immune responses. Detailed studies of the mechanisms underlying host responses to pathogens coupled with high dimensional analysis of the epigenetic, genetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic, events that culminate in protective immunity, is used to design rational vaccine approaches. These insights lead to the discovery of new knowledge, which, after replication and validation, is then applied to the development of novel vaccine candidates, and in turn, provides new insights into biological processes that further extend scientific knowledge and discovery.