Recombinant vaccine articles from across Nature Portfolio

Protein subunit vaccines are widely used, but their resemblance to native antigens on pathogen surfaces is often unknown. Here, authors compared the structural dynamics and immunogenicity of a meningococcal antigen as soluble subunit and native membrane-embedded, with implications in vaccine design.

This commentary discusses the benefits in terms of time savings and reduced costs of goods in using transient electroporation and immuno-affinity purification as an alternative to the traditional manufacturing approaches for the CGMP manufacturing of HIV Envelope protein immunogens for use in investigational clinical studies. The companion manuscript by Bale et al. describes in detail this approach for CGMP manufacture and analytical evaluation of a near-native HIV envelope timer.

A controversial study in which researchers generated an infectious horsepox virus using synthetic DNA and reverse genetics was recently reported.