The Leeuwenhoek Lecture, 1993. Peptide vaccines: dream or reality?

Small fragments of micro-organisms which elicit protective immune responses have now been identified for several disease-causing agents. This major advance has made it possible to envisage the chemical synthesis of vaccines which could replace those in current use and may also furnish products which cannot be made by traditional methods. In my lecture I will illustrate the principles involved by describing the advances made with synthetic vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease, hepatitis B and malaria.