vaccine research

The flu is hitting children and young adults particularly hard this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 39 pediatric deaths due to flu [...]

Since the first vaccine paved the way for the near-eradication of smallpox over 200 years ago, societies have looked to vaccines as a [...]

Findings May Help Make Immunizations More Effective  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC4eyi8h1UA ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 27, 2014 — Somali Americans develop twice the antibody response to rubella from the current vaccine compared to Caucasians in a new Mayo Clinic study on individualized aspects of immune response. A non-Somali, African-American cohort ranked next in immune response, still significantly higher than Caucasians, and Hispanic Americans in the study were least responsive to the vaccine. The findings appear in the journal Vaccine.  “This is fascinating,” says Gregory Poland, M.D., Mayo Clinic vaccinologist and senior author of the study. “We don’t know why these groups reacted so differently to the vaccine — that’s a subject for further studies — but this new information will help us as we design the vaccines of the future. It will ultimately change how we practice medicine.”