Jeffrey B. Ulmer
Vaccines Research, Chiron Corporation, 4560 Horton Street, Emeryville, California 94608, USA
Vaccines are without a doubt the most successful of mankind’s medical interventions. However, despite more than two centuries of effective use of vaccines, many substantial challenges remain. These include: 1) improvement of existing but suboptimal vaccines (e.g., tuberculosis, influenza), 2) discovery and development of new vaccines against targets to address large unmet medical needs (e.g., HIV, malaria, cancer), and 3) rapidly responding to new pathogens (e.g., newly emerging microbes, bioweapons). Recent advancements have demonstrated proof of concept for active immunization in the treatment of cancers. Taking full advantage will require the application of new technologies and paradigms in the areas of tumor antigen identification and optimization, novel potent and safe adjuvants, and enhanced vaccine delivery systems.