Adjuvants

Vaccines are a critical component to preventing infectious disease outbreaks. The WHO estimates that vaccines prevent 3.5 to 5 million deaths per year worldwide. Despite this success, new vaccines are needed to prevent additional deaths caused by emerging and re-emerging infectious pathogens.

ITI is improving vaccines by developing new vaccine adjuvants- components added to vaccines to increase immune protection by the vaccine. Vaccine adjuvants can also improve how vaccines work by decreasing the vaccine dose needed to provide protection against death or severe disease.

ITI is working to design new vaccine adjuvants by developing small molecules that activate the immune processes used by the human body when naturally infected by a pathogen.