Computer-Aided Vaccine Design

Preface

Vaccination has its roots in 1796, when an English scientist by the name of Edward Jenner inoculated James Phipps, his gardener’s eight-year-old son, with material from the cowpox blisters of the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid infected with cowpox from a cow named Blossom. Jenner went on to show that by inoculation with cowpox people became immune to smallpox, and that protective cowpox could be effectively inoculated from person to person. This work laid the foundation for the design of modern vaccines, and Blossom’s hide is now enshrined in the library of St George’s medical school to commemorate the pioneer of smallpox vaccination and the father of immunology. Since then, vaccines have changed the world and saved the lives of millions ...