The Personalised Vaccines

In the New Scientist, the article “Personalised vaccines could protect all children” catches my interest because nowadays, the genetic education is very popular.

According to the article, Charlotte King points out that although everybody usually get the same vaccines since we were born, not everyone produces enough antibodies in response to a vaccine to protect them against disease. People’s gene plays a major role of the weakness response to the vaccine. Berran Yucesoy’s team of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown did a research by analyzing on the gene that code for cytokines, which are the molecules involving people’s immune response, of 141 healthy babies. They gave babies the vaccines and measured the levels of antibodies in their blood. In the final result, “they found single-letter variations in seven of the cytokine genes in infants who produced low levels of antibodies in response” (¶ 6). They will do a further research to confirm that these gene variants are the cause of a lack of disease protection.

Today, the knowledge of genetic can help the scientists to research and develop new medicines. This research is very useful because each person has the different DNA. When babies take vaccinations in the same doses, there is no guarantee that it can protect every baby from the disease a hundred percent. This experiment shows that, in future, we can develop personalized vaccines which are proper to an individual in order to provide an effective protection. I think that it is not only useful for the babies, but we can also apply this concept to other diseases such as influenza, the H1N1 flu, to limit the epidemic of disease. Therefore it can improve the quality of people’s lives in the world.

References
King, C.(2009, December 7). Personalised vaccines could protect all children. New Scientist. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427373.500-personalised-vaccines-could-protect-all-children.html