Vaccines Against Antigenically Variable Viruses

The topic we propose for this Frontiers Research Topic in Microbiology covers the broad theme of “vaccines against antigenically variable viruses”. Viruses that have numerous serotypes or strains are particularly difficult to generate broadly protective vaccines for and there are numerous scientific and clinical reasons why. Despite decades of research and clinical trials, there are no licensed vaccines for e.g. human immunodeficiency viruses, rhinoviruses, or coronaviruses that cause a large disease burden in humans. Despite the relative success of influenza virus vaccine development, it is still limited as the formulations require updating each season to contain the predicted circulating strains. This Research Topic for the journal will coordinate the current research, both basic and translational, in the field of vaccine development for human and animal viral infections to these very difficult and changeable pathogens.
We propose to invite submissions encompassing a multidisciplinary approach taken by leading researchers that tackle this extremely important area of research. The Topic will therefore attempt to bring together research at several levels that includes bioinformatics, molecular biology, chemical bioengineering, immunological, structural biology, using both in vitro and in vivo models of viral infections – the overarching theme will be novel vaccine approaches both at the pre-clinical and clinical trial level for these pathogens. A particular focus will be the use of antibody-guided structural analyses of pathogen epitopes to generate universal vaccine approaches.