Cleaning up immunology’s dirty little secret

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a menu of 61 new strains of genetically engineered bacteria that may improve the efficacy of vaccines for diseases such as flu, pertussis, cholera and HPV.

Biological adjuvants have been used for years to increase the effectiveness of vaccines. Historically, adjuvants consisted of contaminants that were intentionally added to the vaccine to help prime the immune system to react to the actual vaccine. These adjuvants were known as immunology’s dirty little secret. Now, scientists have engineered 61 bacterial strains to express endotoxin adjuvants on the cell surface which have proven to be effective in rendering a vaccine effective against multiple pathogens at the same time.

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