Rational antibacterial vaccine design through genomic technologies

After 200 years of practice, vaccinology has proved to be very effective in preventing infectious diseases. However, several human and animal pathogens exist for which vaccines have not yet been discovered. As for other fields of medical sciences, it is expected that vaccinology will greatly benefit from the emerging genomics technologies such as bioinformatics, proteomics and DNA microarrays. In this review, the potential of these technologies will be illustrated taking into account part of the research activities currently in progress in our laboratories. In particular, I will describe the identification of new vaccine candidates against Meningococcus B through high-throughput cloning and expression of meningococcal antigens selected by: (i) in silico analysis of genome sequence; and (ii) transcriptome analysis of bacteria adherent to epithelial cells. In addition, I will show how the combination of high-throughput cloning and expression technology with two-dimensional gel/mass spectrometry led us to the elucidation of Chlamydia pneumoniae surface protein subproteome and to the identification of potential vaccine candidates.