New modular vaccine design combines best of existing vaccine technologies

MAPS technology may generate vaccines conferring strong immunity at reduced cost and risk. A new method of vaccine design, called the Multiple Antigen Presentation System (MAPS), may result in vaccines that bring together the benefits of whole-cell and acellular or defined subunit vaccination. The method, pioneered by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, permits rapid construction of new vaccines that activate multiple arms of the immune system simultaneously against one or more pathogens, generating robust immune protection with a lower risk of adverse effects. As reported by Fan Zhang, PhD, Ying-Jie Lu, PhD, and Richard Malley, MD, from Boston Children’s Division of Infectious Disease, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 29, the method could speed development of new vaccines for a range of globally serious pathogens, or infectious agents. Broadly speaking, the vaccines available today fall into two categories: whole-cell vaccines, which rely on weakened or killed bacteria or...