Development of a Universal Meningococcal Vaccine

Vaccine immunisation programmes have proven successful against some of the world’s most deadly diseases, eradicating smallpox and on the edge of eradicating Polio. Unfortunately, vaccines are not available to protect against many existing infections and new vaccine approaches are required to stop evolving and emerging diseases. For example, while vaccines protect against some strains of bacteria that cause meningitis, group B meningococcal disease has proved difficult to combat. The Meningitis Research Foundation estimates that there are around 3,300 cases of bacterial meningitis and associated septicaemia every year in the UK and Ireland. No protective vaccine is available against the major B group strains in the UK and infection can often be fatal or lead to significant brain damage and/or limb amputation. This project will develop a new approach to produce a universal vaccine “MenBioVax” effective against all invasive meningococcal disease.