[Conference Cycle-Science and Challenges for the Future] New frontiers in Vaccinology

Title: New frontiers in Vaccinology

Speaker: Mariagrazia Pizza

Affiliation: GSK Vaccines

Abstract: Vaccines have had a major impact on human health over the past two centuries, allowing for the control and elimination of many infectious diseases. Most of the vaccines available today, although very effective, have been developed using conventional approaches. Important discoveries in the field of chemistry, microbiology and immunology and the development of new and sophisticated technologies have provided alternatives to the design of improved vaccines or of novel vaccines against infections for which preventive measures do not exist.

Today new antigens can be identified through genome analysis. Structural biology and human immunology are shedding light on the molecular basis of a protective immune response, and guiding the structure-based design of more stable and more immunogenic antigens.