New vaccines: challenges of discovery

Vaccines have been a major component of preventing and controlling infectious diseases. The basis for discovery of what protects is reviewed as well as new attempts in utilizing Reverse Vaccinology, RNA-RNA methods and proteome analysis are adding significantly to our knowledge. The challenge of how to define protective and defined components of microbes is still hampering efforts to discover new vaccines. Recent excitement about immunotherapy of cancer opens the way to develop vaccines against multiple malignancies.