Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Discovery could lead to more effective vaccines, personalised therapies for TB

Tuberculosis (TB) used to kill one in seven people around the world before the advent of antibiotics. However the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant TB means that doctors are running out of options in trying to combat this bacterium.

18 Feb 2016

FDA issues new guidance to reduce risk of Zika blood transmission

As a safety measure against the emerging Zika virus outbreak, today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a new guidance recommending the deferral of individuals from donating blood if they have been to areas with active Zika virus transmission, potentially have been exposed to the virus, or have had a confirmed Zika virus infection.

18 Feb 2016

Wistar researchers find potential way for using STAT3 inhibitors to stop cancer progression

Imagine developing a drug designed to inhibit a protein that helps cancer cells proliferate and survive only to find that the drug does not perform very well in the clinic. This was the dilemma faced by scientists researching inhibitors of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3), a protein that controls transcription by the STAT3 gene.

17 Feb 2016

WRAIR begins Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate MERS vaccine candidate

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research began vaccinations today in a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and immune response of a vaccine candidate to prevent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

17 Feb 2016

New vaccination campaign projected to decrease HFMD incidence in China

Broad vaccination with newly available monovalent hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) vaccines will decrease HFMD incidence in China, according to predictions from an epidemiologic model published this week in PLOS Medicine.

17 Feb 2016

Experts available to discuss use of meningitis vaccine in childhood immunization programs

Global vaccine experts and officials from all 26 African "meningitis belt" countries will convene in Ethiopia next week in advance of the Ministerial Conference on Immunization to celebrate one of Africa's biggest public health achievements--the introduction of a vaccine that in five years of use has protected more than 235 million people in 16 countries, nearly eliminating meningitis A disease on the continent.

17 Feb 2016

New vaccine strategy may curb addiction, prevent fatal overdoses

With use of synthetic opioid "designer drugs" on the rise, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have a new strategy to curb addiction and even prevent fatal overdoses.

17 Feb 2016

Co-parenting a child has bigger impact on the immune system than flu vaccine or gastroenteritis

Raising a child together has a greater effect on your immune system than the seasonal 'flu vaccine or travellers' gastroenteritis, a study by researchers at VIB and KU Leuven in Belgium and the Babraham Institute in the UK has found.

16 Feb 2016

Johns Hopkins experts provide useful information to help prevent transmission of Zika virus

With Zika virus emerging as a public health concern worldwide, experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital are closely monitoring the spread of the mosquito-borne illness and offering useful information to help prevent transmission.

16 Feb 2016

CMV-based vaccine provides protection against Ebola virus

As the latest in a series of studies, researchers at Plymouth University, National Institutes of Health and University of California, Riverside, have shown the ability of a vaccine vector based on a common herpesvirus called cytomegalovirus (CMV) expressing Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP), to provide protection against Ebola virus in the experimental rhesus macaque, non-human primate (NHP) model.

16 Feb 2016

Experimental vaccine shows effectiveness in Ebola vaccine trial

An experimental vaccine combined with an innovative way of vaccinating people has resulted in an estimated 100 percent efficacy of the vaccine against the Ebola virus in West Africa -- and the approach could establish a new way of responding to outbreaks of emerging pathogens, including the Zika virus.

16 Feb 2016

Neural gene promotes growth and spread of metastatic breast cancer

When breast cancer becomes advanced and spreads to other organs, patient survival is drastically reduced, prompting the need to explore the genes that may cause tumor cells to metastasize.

15 Feb 2016

Protein Sciences, UNIGEN agree to supply Flublok influenza vaccine for the U.S. market from Japan

Protein Sciences Corporation (Meriden, CT and Pearl River, NY) and UMN Pharma Inc. (Akita, Akita prefecture, Japan) announced today that Protein Sciences and UNIGEN Inc., a joint venture of UMN and IHI Corporation (Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan), entered into an agreement to source bulk Flublok influenza vaccine from Japan for the U.S. market.

12 Feb 2016

Humans can tolerate parasites responsible for sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis

Humans can tolerate the parasites responsible for the sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis for many years.

12 Feb 2016

Leeds scientists to start computer drug research to find cure for Ebola virus

Scientists at the University of Leeds will run the equivalent of password cracking software to find the chemical keys to defeating the Ebola virus.

11 Feb 2016

Zika: an update

Since the Zika outbreak in Brazil early last year, the virus has spread to 20 countries across the Americas. As of February 3rd, 35 cases of Zika have been reported in the U.S., all of which have been associated with international travel.

11 Feb 2016

UW-Madison research team starts work on Zika virus infection

In October, when David O'Connor last visited Brazil as part of a decade-long research program studying drug-resistant strains of HIV, one of his Brazilian collaborators had a request.

11 Feb 2016

First case of Zika virus found in Ohio

"This is not unexpected," says Frank Esper, MD, infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, after learning of the first case of Zika virus in Ohio, found in a Cleveland woman who traveled to Haiti. "We know people are going to come back and they're going to have the Zika virus."

11 Feb 2016

UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece, UMMS President and CEO Robert Chrencik named recipients of 'Speaker's Medallion'

The Maryland House of Delegates and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, has announced that University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA and University of Maryland Medical System President and CEO Robert Chrencik, MBA, are recipients of the "Speaker's Medallion," the highest honor given to the public by the leader of the Maryland House of Delegates.

11 Feb 2016

ESCMID gathers more solid data to better assess Zika virus risks, prepares for possible outbreak in Africa, Europe

Experts at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases – an organization promoting research, risk assessment, knowledge sharing and best practices in the fight against infectious diseases – are developing tools to monitor the spread of the Zika virus and are conducting research to gather more solid data to better assess the risks associated with the infection.

10 Feb 2016