Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Epitope-based immunome-derived vaccines: A strategy for improved design and safety for infectious diseases and biodefense

2^nd International Conference on Vaccines and Vaccination

August 20-22, 2012 Hilton Chicago/Northbrook, USA

Anne S. De Groot, Timothy J. Messitt, Matthew Ardito, Christine Boyle, Leonard Moise, Lesley Dupuy, Connie Schmaljohn and William Martin

Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

V accine science has extended beyond genomics and proteomics to also encompass �immunomics�, the study of the universe of pathogen-derived or neoplasm-derived peptides that interface with B and T cells of the host immune system. It has been theorized that effective vaccines can be developed using the minimum essential subset of T and B-cell epitopes that comprise the �immunome�. We and other researchers are therefore using bioinformatics sequence analysis tools, epitope-mapping tools, microarrays and high-throughput immunology assays to discover the minimal essential components of the immunome beginning with genomic data. The genome-to-vaccine strategy may have a significant advantage over conventional vaccines, as careful selection of vaccine components may diminish undesired side effects as have been observed with whole pathogen and protein subunit vaccines.