Systems vaccinology and big data in the vaccine development chain

Raeven, René H. M.; van Riet, Elly; Meiring, Hugo D.; Metz, Bernard; Kersten, Gideon F. A.

The Systems Vaccinology approach is not limited to the common application of transcriptomics and proteomics and novel techniques and applications are more often applied (Table 1) . For example, metabolomics is a highthroughput technology to study metabolic pathways in biological systems. The metabolome covers all small molecules and intermediates (usually < 2000 dalton (Da) molecular weight) that are highly dynamic in the catabolic and anabolic processes of cells. In many immunological studies, metabolomics is now an integral part of system vaccinology, to predict biomarkers and to evaluate vaccine efficacy. 45, 46 Untargeted metabolome analysis requires many different sample preparation procedures and analytical tools to identify all metabolites. Gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, MS, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance are frequently used or combined to study the metabolome, although with limited precision and accuracy. Improved accuracy, precision and specificity of these assays can be obtained by using semi-targeted or targeted metabolomics strategies if the chemical identities of the analytes are known beforehand. 47