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.

In summary, systems vaccinology is becoming a valuable tool in each phase of the vaccine development chain. The link with predicting immune responses beforehand is, however, still difficult. Small but important steps are currently taken towards application of the insights created by systems vaccinology. Recent studies show that the application of systems vaccinology is especially interesting for investigating complex or dangerous pathogens such as Ebola virus, HIV, malaria-causing Plasmodium spp. and M. tuberculosis where phase 3 studies are challenging or even impossible, [120] [121] [122] [123] [124] heterologous or non-specific effects that vaccines induce against other diseases. 141 These promising changes call for the inclusion of systems vaccinology as early as possible in the vaccine development chain to better understand why some vaccines work and others do not. This will enable efficiency of vaccine development proportionally in the design phase and will lead to improved vaccine evaluation in early phases, thereby reducing time and costs.