Vaccine and Immunology

Animal Models & Clinical Trials

Animals are still used in research in order to create vaccines for humans. Before being allowed to proceed to the clinical stage in human beings, regulatory bodies mandate that innovative vaccination candidates go through preclinical evaluation in animal models. The number of animals utilized for preclinical vaccine research has been steadily declining in recent years thanks to advances in computational biology and bioinformatics for the creation of novel vaccine candidates. However, the ultimate objective of a novel vaccination is to direct the immune system to mount a successful defense  against the pathogen of interest, and at this point, there are no substitutes for using live animals in the assessment of this defense.