New nanoparticle vaccine is more effective but less expensive

**Good news for public health: Bioengineering researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies.** Described in an article appearing online September 16 in the journal **Nature Biotechnology**, the vaccine delivery platform is a deceptively simple combination of **nanotechnology** and chemistry that represents a huge advantage over current vaccine methods. This technology may make it possible to vaccinate against diseases like hepatitis and malaria with a single injection. And at an estimated cost of only a dollar a dose, this technology represents a real breakthrough for **vaccine** efforts in the developing world. A vaccination is an injection of a non-virulent form of a pathogen or molecule from a **pathogen** (known as an antigen), to which the immune system responds, destroying and then developing a “memory” for the pathogen. Later, when a virulent form of the pathogen comes along, this memory kicks in and the intruder is quickly eradicated. Most vaccines protect against viruses or **bacteria**, but vaccine techniques are also being explored as a way to kill **cancer cells**. Whole article on "Physorg":[ http://www.physorg.com/news109242926.html]

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