The ultimate goal of global health research is the prevention of human disease
The invention of vaccines has been one of the most impactful discoveries to improve human health, including being responsible for the eradication of one of the world’s most severe diseases – smallpox. Vaccines offer protection against many human pathogens, but it is increasingly recognized that past strategies have limited efficacy against rapidly mutating pathogens such as HIV, malaria and influenza.
Scientists at Scripps Research have pioneered a way to develop the next generation of vaccines. ‘Rational vaccine design’ seeks to discover immunogens and immunization strategies that induce both antibody and cellular immune responses that are able to protect against the diverse human pathogens that have proven hardest to develop vaccines for. At the Scripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development, scientists have used rational design to develop promising vaccine candidates for HIV by coaxing the immune system into producing broadly neutralizing antibodies needed to fight the huge diversity of HIV strains.
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Outsmarting Outbreaks
Scripps Research scientists develop super-powered vaccines and therapeutics against HIV, flu and other deadly viruses. Read article in Scripps Research Magazine.