The team claims its work, funded by Tonix, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in New York City, could lead to a safer, more effective
vaccine against smallpox.
Not exact matches
Although much of that money goes to stockpiling
vaccines and improving disease surveillance and information exchange, part of it pays for research into improved
vaccines and other «countermeasures»
against smallpox, anthrax, and botulinum toxin.
If the
vaccine also proves safe and effective in subsequent tests in humans, it might be possible to mount a containment strategy similar to that used in the past
against smallpox.
«I've never seen anything quite so disturbing,» said Zelicoff, who worries that existing
smallpox vaccines may not offer adequate protection
against the strain.
Such cross-protection is the case with cowpox and
smallpox, and a
vaccine currently in use for Japanese encephalitis protects some animals
against the closely related West Nile virus.
Ever since Edward Jenner developed the first successful
vaccine against the dreaded
smallpox virus, researchers have been riveted by the interplay between the body's defense mechanisms and pathogens staging an attack.
During 2002 through 2006, VXGN developed
vaccines against inhalation anthrax and
smallpox for the purpose of biodefense.