Traditional vaccines are usually based on dead viruses containing only viral particles or virus coat proteins. Such vaccines cause the immune system to create antibodies that bind to certain epitopes on the virus surface and neutralize the virus. Many of traditional vaccines have several disadvantages such as low thermal stability and inability to neutralize different types of the virus. We are developing novel methodology for designing chimeric vaccines, where the viral epitope, most conserved among various types of viruses, is fused to a thermostable protein. Such a chimeric vaccine is highly stable and is likely to be effective in generating neutralizing antibodies against the whole family of viruses. We are testing our new methodology for vaccine
