Vaccine Facts with BactiVax

BactiVax ESR Podcast for World Immunization Week 2024

In celebration of World Immunization Week 2024, here is a final BactiVax podcast created during our last International Conference in September 2023. Listen in to the world of the BactiVax PhD researchers as they share their journey, shedding light on their beginnings and how their research addresses real-world issues. They discuss misconceptions about their field and explore their career plans as scientists and personal insights they have gained as now late-stage PhD researchers, and in conclusion, with key takeaways from their enlightening discussion.

Vaccine Facts part 5 - vaccines of the future

In the final episode of our podcast series celebrating World Immunization Week 2021, we talk about vaccines of the future, while answering your questions:

• How can we tackle antimicrobial resistant infections and why are vaccines the only viable option?
• Will we have vaccines to prevent cancers in the near future (other than the existing HPV and Hepatitis B vaccines)?
• What are messenger RNA (or mRNA) vaccines? How do they work? What advantages and disadvantages do they have?
• Will vaccines be administered via the nose, mouth or a skin patch in the future, rather than through injection?

Listen to our researchers, Unai Atxabal from the Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (Spain), María García Bengoa from LIONEX (Germany) and Chiara Bellini from Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary).

Vaccine Facts part 4 - vaccine confidence and herd immunity are teamwork

Welcome to part 4 of our Wold Immunization Week podcast series. Today we talk about vaccine hesitancy: where it stems from, how is misinformation spread and what we can do to increase vaccine confidence (and why we should do so). We're also explaining the importance of herd immunity through vaccination and why achieving this requires team effort. 

We'll leave you with the wise words of our researchers and we hope you enjoy today's podcast: 'Herd immunity is a way of understanding the great potential of vaccines that drugs do not have. Beyond individual protection, it can protect even those who are not vaccinated in a cost-effective way. So we must understand that when people refuse  a vaccine they are not only refusing their individual protection but they are putting those around them at risk, including those who would be happy to be vaccinated but are unable to do so, and leaving room for the pathogen to reproduce. With many people saying no, it becomes impossible to stop the spread of the pathogen.' 

Featuring Maite Sainz, researcher at University College Dublin (Ireland), Eliza Kramarska, researcher at the National Research Council of Italy, and Lorenzo Bossi, researcher at ImmunXperts (Belgium).

 

Vaccine Facts part 3 - vaccine clinical studies explained

You asked about clinical trials and we answered.

In episode 3 of the World Immunization Week podcast series, our researchers - Franziska Pieper (Imperial College London, UK), Océane Sadones (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany) and Zsolt Bognár (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) tell you all you wanted to know about how vaccine clinical studies work:

• Where do scientists start from when making a vaccine?
• How are safety and efficiency tested before clinical studies on people?
• How is the process authorised and who is responsible for this?
• Are there special ethics approvals before testing vaccines intended for children?
• How are people recruited for clinical trials?
• Are approved vaccines reviewed periodically, once they are on the market?
• How were COVID-19 vaccines developed so fast?
• How long does it take to develop immunity after a vaccine?

And more...

For more information on clinical trials check this website and these slides on how the approval process works.

Vaccine Facts part 2 - we've come a long way (history, types of vaccines and other components)

In the second episode of our podcast series celebrating World Immunization Week 2021, we'll talk about the beginnings of vaccines and how they changed the world. We'll also tell you about the types of vaccines in use and what other vaccine components, such as adjuvants, are.

For example, did you know that some vaccines use whole pathogens (inactivated or attenuated), while others use small pieces of the germ (like the mRNA vaccines now used for COVID-19)?

This episode features three BactiVax researchers: Paulina Zarodkiewicz (Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland), Emil Vergara (St. George's University of London, UK) and Ana Rita Franco (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy). 

For more information about what we do at BactiVax, please visit www.bactivax.eu.

Vaccine Facts part 1 - who is WHO and why do we need vaccines?

To celebrate World Immunization Week 2021 (24 - 30 April), we at BactiVax are launching a podcast series. In the first 5 episodes, we will answer all the questions that you sent to our scientists about vaccines. 

In the first episode, we have Sam Pasco, researcher at CIC bioGUNE | Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (Bilbao, Spain), Enisa Smlatić, researcher at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany), and Irene Jurado, researcher at University College Dublin (Ireland), discussing about the work of the World Health Organization in addressing immunization needs globally. Our researchers are also explaining how vaccines work and why do we need them.

Hope you enjoy our first episode and stay tuned as we release a new episode every day this week!