Vaccines save millions of lives every year, but there is still an urgent need for more efficient vaccines. Strategies to combat serious outbreaks of viral infections are particularly important. Such infections are initiated at mucosal surfaces, where there is a close association between polarized epithelial cells and immune effector cells. However, vaccines are usually given intramuscularly or subcutaneously, and often do not provide sufficient protection at the actual site of infection.

In Nature Communications, the laboratory of Professor Jan Terje Andersen and collaborators report on a novel vaccine technology platform, in which the subunit antigen is genetically fused to albumin.

Albumin was chosen as a carrier as it is actively transported across the mucosal barrier by FcRn, a receptor found on mucosal epithelial cells.