this is even more true in developing areas, where the availability of safe and low cost products might improve greatly agriculture, zootechnics, health, trade, and economics.
Genetic engineering and biotechnology are making available new knowledge and tools in vaccine technology, allowing molecular analysis of the immune system in its response to infectious agents. Of course, the identification of many viral, protozoan or bacterial antigens and, in some cases, their detailed analysis and "dissection" in epitopes and three dimensional structures have also taken place.
Such remarkable scientific and technological fallout has brought to new vaccine design (for example, targeted genetic attenuation of viral strains), as well as innovative approaches (recombinant vaccines or live vectors) or more effective formulations (VLPs, ISCOMs, controlled release systems), applicable both in human and in veterinary medicine. The most important approaches in vaccine development, here reviewed, are illustrated in Figure 1. Some biotechnological innovations have been shown to be particularly suitable to the needs of developing countries. Drugs and vaccines specifically addressed to these coun-
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Dr. Silvia Russo gained her degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Milan in 1989. She worked at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery from 1987 to 1992, carrying out the cloning of HIV-1 envelope antigens and the analysis of the immune response in humans. She started her PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, working on eukaryotic host cells aimed to express veterinary diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Dr. Russo is currently a post-doc fellow at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology. Her scientific interests are concerned mainly with molecular biology, especially of animal retroviruses and its application to biotechnology and production of recombinant drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines.
Dr. Lauretta Turin obtained her degree in Biology from the University of Milan in 1990. She then moved to the Faculty of Agriculture, where she gained her PhD in 1994, working on biochemistry and microbiology of milk and related foods. During her stages abroad (Israel, California), Dr. Turin worked on molecular biology and immunology of Influenza Virus, HIV, and herpesviruses. Her scientific interests are concerned mainly with cell biology, virology, and molecular biology, ranging from diagnosis of infectious diseases to the design of recombinant vaccines. Dr. Turin is presently a post-doc fellow at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology.