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Fnord666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A team of researchers at Peking University has developed a new type of vaccine that they claim may allow for a new approach to generating live virus vaccines which could conceivably be adapted to any type of virus. In their paper published in the journal Science [medicalxpress.com], the team outlines the means by which they modified an influenza virus causing it to incite an immune response without a risk of infection.

Most vaccines today contain viruses that have been killed or weakened to the point that they are unlikely to cause an infection when injected into a healthy patient. Such vaccines work by causing the immune system to target similar viruses if found in the body before they have a chance to multiply, causing an infection. Unfortunately, in some cases, people with weak immune systems have found themselves experiencing a full-blown infection from a vaccine. In this new effort, the researchers took a new approach to creating a vaccine—modifying an influenza virus in such a way as disallow it from causing an infection in any patient.

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