Vaccinology: From Outbreak to Rollout

The focus of the course is to understand how vaccines against bacterial pathogens were developed in the past and what improvements can be implemented today. Using real-life clinical cases, we make connections between disease manifestations, cellular responses, immunity, infection, and vaccine discovery and development. We cover general principles of vaccinology and discuss examples of successful vaccines that were produced using reverse vaccinology approaches. For example, we discuss how a serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis was discovered and why it is efficacious. We also talk about one of the oldest vaccines in the world, bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and its efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and learn that BCG offers cross protection against SARS-CoV-2. We discuss the challenges for vaccine development against pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or E. coli. We talk about advances in cancer vaccine efforts and understand results from past and ongoing clinical trials. We talk about the importance of machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to developing new vaccines. Finally, we discuss how advancements in sciences are translated in the budding of new biotechnology start-ups and spin-offs, which offer new approaches for vaccine development. The course is interactive, includes mini-lectures and student-lead discussions. We include use of SandBox to diversify student learning experiences. Students may not take both BIOT S-212 and BIOT S-215 (offered previously) for degree or certificate credit.