vaccine design

Both of the mRNA vaccines available in the US are highly effective against severe COVID-19, but recent studies suggest that Moderna’s elicits a stronger immune response and might be better at preventing breakthrough infections.  

President Biden’s planned rollout of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses is set to begin next week, but questions remain about who should get them.

Immune-response levels to the edible vaccine varied among the subjects, possibly due to differences in the gut microbiome.

More than a dozen vaccines for tuberculosis are currently being tested in clinical trials. Some use whole bacteria as BCG does, while others deliver protein subunits or genetic material carried by viral vectors.  

This month marks the 100-year anniversary of BCG, still the only approved vaccine against the lethal pathogen. But there are new vaccines for this wily foe on the horizon.

Scientists are on the hunt for a shot that will protect against not only SARS-CoV-2, but other members of its family that may emerge in the future.

Scientists use a protein found in mucus membranes to ferry vaccines to the lymph nodes.

By avoiding the production of antibodies, something vaccines ordinarily induce, the immunization sidesteps the problem of antibody-dependent enhancement, which can amplify infection by a similar virus and is known to occur with dengue and Zika.

It’s unclear how long protections against infection will last from the initial vaccinations, and health authorities say additional jabs will likely be necessary.

Mix-and-match shots could simplify vaccine rollout and stimulate more-robust immune responses. Ongoing clinical trials will soon give answers.

Engineered viruses that don’t replicate provide a tractable model for scientists to safely study SARS-CoV-2, including research into vaccine efficacy and emerging variants.

Facing new variants of SARS-CoV-2, some vaccines may offer more robust protection or be more easily redesigned to target them.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is less effective at preventing COVID-19 than other approved vaccines are, but experts say it could still be an important tool in curbing the pandemic.

Long before Moderna’s and Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots, scientists had been considering the use of genetically encoded vaccines in the fight against infectious diseases, cancer, and more.

A recent study elucidates some of the changes that occur in the body after inoculation with a tuberculosis vaccine.

As researchers test existing vaccines for nonspecific protection against COVID-19, immunologists are working to understand how some inoculations protect against pathogens they weren’t designed to fend off.

The company voluntarily paused its studies, including one in Phase 3, after an unexplained illness in a patient.

Almost 40 scientists have signed an open letter, citing odd patterns in the data and a lack of transparency after authors withheld the full data.

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