Josh: This is simply amazing. What a great way to deliver vaccines exactly where they need to be. I wonder how easily this could be adapted for other uses, such as for HIV. If the cells produce just the proteins that form the envelope and other exposed regions of the virus, perhaps the body has a much better chance of creating effective antibodies. Even if it won’t work, it should allow for much more rapid development of other vaccines, such as for H5N1.

Researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have made a major step forward in their work to develop a biologically engineered organism that can effectively deliver an antigen in the body. The researchers report that they have been able to use live salmonella bacterium as the containment/delivery method for an antigen.

The work is a major step forward in development of a new means of biological containment that would be a key component to a new way to deliver vaccines in animals and humans. If fully developed, the new method could be used to administer vaccines to many of those who do not benefit from traditional vaccines because of their cost, because of drug resistance or because of limited effects on children.
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