Science Translational Medicine
6 July 2011 vol 3, issue 90
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/current

Perspective – Pediatric Vaccines
Development of Newborn and Infant Vaccines
Guzman Sanchez-Schmitz and Ofer Levy
6 July 2011: 90ps27

Abstract
Vaccines for early-life immunization are a crucial biomedical intervention to reduce global morbidity and mortality, yet their developmental path has been largely ad hoc, empiric, and inconsistent. Immune responses of human newborns and infants are distinct and cannot be predicted from those of human adults or animal models. Therefore, understanding and modeling age-specific human immune responses will be vital to the rational design and development of safe and effective vaccines for newborns and infants.