Article Text
Abstract
Despite decades of research, progress towards a vaccine for genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection and disease has been slow, with only modest levels of protection being achieved to date. In the last three years in particular, there have been several significant advances that give renewed optimism for an effective vaccine. In 2014, the WHO published a Road Map for STI vaccine development, listing a range of key objectives that need to be addressed. This presentation will discuss several of these objectives and the recent progress being made, including (a) understanding the relationship between pathogen genomes and disease severity, (b) use of non-mouse models for evaluating vaccines, (c) better understanding of disease pathogenesis using a rapidly expanding genetic toolbox, (d) recent promising vaccine trials.