Improving modern vaccines: Sugar polymer tails wag the protein dog

Millions of people - particularly infants in underdeveloped countries - suffer from the serious life threatening illnesses of meningitis, pneumonia and influenza. Early vaccines were based on the large and complex carbohydrate (sugar) based polymers produced by the bacteria. More recently new glycoconjugate vaccines have been developed which involves 'fusing' the complex carbohydrates - the sugar polymer tails - onto carrier proteins. These sugar-protein complexes improve the effectiveness and l...