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Arctic Bacteria Used To Make Cool Vaccines

Posted by kdawson on from the it's-a-dry-heat dept.

cremeglace writes "Scientists say they may have discovered a way to develop cool new vaccines — and they mean that literally. By replacing essential genes in a mammalian pathogen with their counterparts from Arctic bacteria, they have created strains that provoke a protective immune response in mice, but that don't spread to the warm parts of the body where they could do serious harm. The team hopes that the method will lead to a new generation of vaccines for major bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis."

2 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. There are already TB vaccines by h4rr4r · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are already TB vaccines, I have the scar to prove it.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_Calmette-Guérin

    1. Re:There are already TB vaccines by Cyberax · · Score: 3, Informative

      Unfortunately, as vaccines go BCG is on the 'very ineffective' side of the spectrum. It's better than nothing, but just barely.