Building Life-long Immunity: an Introduction to the Conference Theme

The intentional and planned production of a protective immunity by means of vaccination antigens, including the induction of an immunological memory, can stand for the splendid achievements of immunology in the field of medicine. The potentials of these achievements have by no means been fully explored, nor do we completely understand under what kind of optimal conditions immunological memory is built up and maintained over a lifetime, or at least for a very long period of time. Certainly, future scientific achievements in immunology and molecular biology will still be needed to improve our comprehension of basic mechanisms and to help to accelerate progress in vaccine research and enable the vaccines' manufacturers to continue to develop a promising new generation of vaccines.