Investigation into basic and advanced peptide design, synthesis, evaluation and utilization. New therapeutic approaches from experimental systems.

Genetic / DNA immunization represents a novel approach to vaccine and immune therapeutic development. The direct injec- tion of nucleic acid expression cassettes into a living host results in a limited number of its cells becoming factories for production of the introduced gene products. This host-inappropriate gene expression has important immunological consequences, resulting in the specific immune activation of the host against the gene- delivered antigen. The recent demonstration by a number of laboratories that the induced immune responses are functional in experimental models against...