A 2020 vision for vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria and tuberculosis collectively cause more than five million deaths per year, but have nonetheless eluded conventional vaccine development; for this reason they represent one of the major global public health challenges as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century. Recent trials have provided evidence that it is possible to develop vaccines that can prevent infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and malaria. Furthermore, advances in vaccinology, including novel adjuvants, prime–boost regimes and strategies for intracellular antigen presentation, have led to progress in developing a vaccine against tuberculosis. Here we discuss these advances and suggest that new tools such as systems biology and structure-based antigen design will lead to a deeper understanding of mechanisms of protection which, in turn, will lead to rational vaccine development. We also argue that new and innovative approaches to clinical trials will accelerate the availability of these vaccines. PERSPECTIVE - doi:10.1038/nature10124 |
 |
Football tournament - 1° Torneo Achille Sclavo (March 16, 2011) &
Gala dinner (March 19, 2011) |
The Sclavo Vaccines Association is a not-for-profit initiative devoted to sustain the development of vaccines, one of the most important achievements of mankind to prevent and cure infectious diseases, at the global level and to support training and research projects in the vaccine field with particular attention to the problems of low-income countries.
Based in Siena (Italy), where one of the first and most important centers in the world for vaccine development was started at the end of the nineteenth century by the visionary hygienist Achille Sclavo, the Association bearing his name is aimed to develop an ambitious program which envisions the transformation that biotechnology has brought to the vaccine field.
Thus the primary mission of SVA is that of advancing immunization technologies for vaccine development thereby allowing the development of effective preventive and therapeutic vaccines and improving trust and acceptance in immunization by the general population, that should consider vaccines as the best public health element not only for preventing diseases but also to reduce poverty and improve quality of life.
To reach this goal SVA, gathering an increasing number of leading institutions in the vaccine field, will be engaged in practical initiatives to accelerate the development and clinical assessment of immunization technologies and candidate vaccines.
