On June 3rd, 2016, Dr. Lorne Babiuk from University of Alberta visited IBP and gave a lecture entitled Enhancing vaccine efficacy through novel vaccines and delivery technology, which was hosted by Prof. ZHANG Xian-En.

Dr. Babiuk is a famous immunologist and virologist. He is academician of the Royal Society of Canada, fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America, and academician of the European Academy of Sciences. He also served as the Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization of Canada. The animal vaccines developed by his team have largely reduced the mortality and morbidity of infectious diseases. For his remarkable contributions to the economy and society, he received many prizes including the officer of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honor in Canada.

Dr. Babiuk told the audience that vaccines have saved much more lives than all other therapies in prevention and control of infectious diseases. The efficacy of a vaccine may be enhanced through new vaccine design, formulations and delivery methods. Particularly, he emphasized that novel adjuvants play an important role in the vaccine design. Then, Dr. Babiuk explained how these adjuvants induced the innate immunity and drives specific immune responses, as well as other scientific problems.

The audience posed many interesting questions after the lecture, one of which was about the molecular mechanisms of novel adjuvants, which is to be elucidated in future.