Ambitious "Human Vaccines Project" Recommended By Experts
A group of 35 experts from the government, academia, industry, and NGOs concluded that the ambitious “Human Vaccines Project” is worthy of merit and time as a potentially transformative project.
According to a team of leading scientists, collective leverage of technologies and insights in antigen discovery, genomics and immunological monitoring could be used to expedite development of vaccines against major diseases. The team published their conclusion in Nature Immunology.
“A Human Vaccines Project focused on solving the major scientific problems impeding vaccine development could be transformative for efforts to help prevent these devastating infectious diseases as well as certain cancers," said Wayne Koff, lead author of the report and chief scientific officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
The experts identified three major concerns in vaccine research and development. First, an existing insufficiency in understanding of how to generate specific, potent, broad and durable immune responses in humans; second, an insufficient understanding of the exact antigens needed to produce desired protective immunity; and third, greater appreciation on how best to optimize vaccine efficacy in newborns, the elderly and populations in the developing world. The team recommended that the Human Vaccines Project specialize on mapping the human immune system into a "human immunome" to foster vaccine discovery.
The project also needs to focus on building a comprehensive series of systematic human immunology-based clinical research studies with experimental vaccines that will solve challenges in research and development. “We are at a pivotal point in the history of biological and vaccine sciences, with an unprecedented opportunity to prevent some of humanity's worst diseases. A Human Vaccines Project has the potential to make that vision a reality," said Stanley Plotkin, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Human Vaccines Project Steering Committee, and co-author of the report.
The experts’ meeting in February was the first of a series of three workshop designed to catalyze the Human Vaccines Project. The second workshop will be held in New York City next month, while the third is set to launch later this year or in early 2015.