Synthetic future for vaccines

The vaccines of the future could be created from synthetic material, the Vaccines and Vaccinations in the 21st Century conference in Canberra has been told.

Scientists are interested in using synthetic proteins and gene sequences from viruses to improve the safety of vaccinations and boost the body's immune response.

Dr David Jackson from Melbourne University says his lipopeptide-based vaccines have recreated small parts of proteins which trigger the body's defences.

"It's much smaller than either a whole cell or a whole protein vaccine and because it's totally synthetic we think it can be quality controlled ... more effectively," he said.

Dr Scott Thomson from the Australian National University says scrambled computer-generated virus material will ensure a strong immune response to various strains of a disease like HIV.

"We can design and optimise each part of the vaccine to mimic as best possible, coverage of as many strains as possible," he said.

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