vaccines

Scientists in the UK have developed a rapid new way of checking for toxic genes in disease-causing bacteria which infect insects and humans.

Their findings could in the future lead to new vaccines and anti-bacterial drugs.

Researchers have licensed ground-breaking research to a non-profit product development partnership working to develop new, more effective vaccines against tuberculosis.

This development will give hope that significantly better prevention and treatment of TB will be available within the next few years.

(DOE/Sandia National Laboratories) Naturally occurring nanotubes may serve as tunnels that protect retroviruses and bacteria as they infect healthy cells.

The unexpected shielding may explain why vaccines fare poorly against some invaders. Sandia researchers now have formed similar nanotubes that could be used to duplicate the phenomenon.

Scientists have discovered a new, previously unknown mechanism in how the body fights a virus. The finding runs counter to traditional scientific understanding of this process and will provide scientists a more effective method for developing vaccines.

(La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology) La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology scientists have discovered one for the textbooks.

Their finding, reported Friday in the scientific journal Immunity, illuminates a new, previously unknown mechanism in how the body fights a virus.

The finding runs counter to traditional scientific understanding of this process and will provide scientists a more effective method for developing vaccines.

Researchers are directing the body's immune system to shrink tumors and prevent new ones from forming. New research details how cellular strategies and new vaccines are changing the cancer treatment landscape.

Researchers are directing the body's immune system to shrink tumors and prevent new ones from forming. Data presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 12-16, detail how cellular strategies and new vaccines are changing the cancer treatment landscape.

Scientists have devised a method that could lead to the development of vaccines against some of the most troubling infectious diseases we face --- diseases that have so far been difficult or impossible to vaccinate against.

The new method allows researchers to rapidly screen large numbers of pathogen proteins, called antigens, for their ability to prompt an immune response in a host.

Proteins with that ability are good candidates for use in vaccines. The method will be especially valuable in the quest for vaccines against persistent diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness and syphilis.