Finding a safer way to make the Polio vaccine

Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a cheaper and safer way of making the polio vaccine. The pioneering work is featured in the latest MadeAtUni campaign, a celebration of the pioneering research taking place in UK universities. The focus of the campaign is scientists involved in health research and innovation. The Leeds’ team, from the Faculty of Biological Sciences, has shown that the polio vaccine can be manufactured from harmless virus-like particles, doing away with the need to use a live virus which carries the risk of the virus escaping. Professor Nicola Stonehouse, who is leading the project with Professor Dave Rowlands, said: “Virus-like particles are proteins that stimulate the body’s immune system in the same way as a virus – in effect, they trick the body into thinking they are the virus.” Scientists have recognised the possibility that they could be used instead of a live virus in vaccine production but...