Vaccine Production

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity against a specific disease. It usually consists of a biological agent representing the disease-causing microorganism -- often a weakened or killed form of that organism, one of its toxins, or one of its surface protein antigens. Biotechnology has produced modern diagnostic test kits, and rickettsial, bacterial and viral vaccines, along with radiolabelled biological therapeutics for imaging and analysis; vaccines have eliminated diseases such as smallpox and polio over the last several decades. More recently, biotechnology has produced recombinant vaccines -- naked DNA vaccines, viral-vector vaccines, and plant-derived vaccines -- some of which are now aimed even at non-communicable diseases like cancer. …