Preface -- Section I Vaccine design -- 1. Design of new vaccines in the genomic and post-genomic era, Laura Serino, Kate L. Seib and Mariagrazia Pizza -- 2. Comparing in silico results to in vivo and ex vivo of influenza-specific immune responses after vaccination or infection in humans, Filippo Castiglione, Benjamin Ribba and Olivier Brass -- Section II Vaccine delivery -- 3. Vaccine glycoprotein tagged with the human Fc domain as second generation vaccine candidates, Silvia Loureiro, Elena Robinson, Hongying Chen, Pongsathon Phapugrangkul, Camilo Colaco and Ian M Jones -- 4. Engineered viruses as vaccine platforms, Antonella Folgori and Stefania Capone -- 5. Virus-like particles as efficient delivery platform to induce a potent immune response, Fabien Rebeaud and Martin Bachmann -- 6. Filamentous bacteriophages: an antigen and gene delivery system, Rossella Sartorius, Domenico Russo, Luciana D'Apice and Piergiuseppe De Berardinis -- 7. Liposomes and other nanoparticles as cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutics, Joseph J. Altin -- 8. Plant-based vaccine delivery strategies, Chiara Lico, Carla Marusic, Floriana Capuano, Giampaolo Buriani, Eugenio Benvenuto, Selene Baschieri -- 9. TLR agonists as vaccine adjuvants, Mark A. Tomai and John P. Vasilakos.-10. Mucosal vaccines for enteric bacterial pathogens, Paolo Pasquali -- Section III Pre-clinical vaccine testing -- 11. The importance of animal models in the development of vaccines, Tadele G. Kiros, Benoit Levast, Gael Auray, Stacy Strom, Jill van Kessel and Volker Gerdts -- 12. Correlates of vaccine-induced immunity: historical perspectives and future challenges, Ian J. Amanna -- Index.

Prevention of infectious diseases by vaccination is one of the most significant achievements of modern medicine. During the 20th century, the average human life span in the developed world was about 70 years and it is expected to increase, with a significant portion of this increase directly attributed to vaccination. Since the first empiric vaccination trials, knowledge and technology have enormously evolved and new vaccination strategies are emerging on the market. Indeed, in spite of the great success, conventional vaccination strategies sometimes may be ineffective and, above all, may raise safety concerns. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of some of the technology platforms that have been realized or are currently under development to try to address unsolved and new issues in the field of vaccine development. The common denominator of all thematic areas described herein is the multidisciplinary teamwork. Most of the enabling technologies have been established by putting in the “melting pot”, expertise in fields that at first glance, may appear very far apart. I hope that this collection of articles will make the readers aware that vaccinology is rapidly taking a new direction and ceasing to be an empirical science.