Next-gen polio vaccine tackles wild virus emergency

Vaccine technology being developed at The University of Queensland could hold the key to completely eradicating polio by removing live virus from the vaccine production process. A polio inoculation in use since the 1950s has all-but eradicated the crippling disease in the developed world, but “wild polio” strains are running rampant in some poorer countries. The World Health Organisation has described the current polio situation in developing countries is an “emergency”. Researcher Dr Natalie Connors visited the WHO in Geneva last month to brief researchers on the “modular virus-like particles” her team is developing at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. “These particles resemble viruses but they are not infectious and only use the safe part of the virus,” Dr Connors said. “They are made by producing protein, not the virus. However, being a good mimic of the infectious virus, they raise an excellent immune response.” Dr Connors uses computational modelling and simulation to predict...