Effective vaccine safety systems in all countries: a challenge for more equitable access to immunization.

Serious vaccine-associated adverse events are rare. To further minimize their occurrence and to provide adequate care to those affected, careful monitoring of immunization programs and case management is required. Unfounded vaccine safety concerns have the potential of seriously derailing effective immunization activities. To address these issues, vaccine pharmacovigilance systems have been developed in many industrialized countries. As new vaccine products become available to prevent new diseases in various parts of the world, the demand for effective pharmacovigilance systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is increasing. To help establish such systems in all countries, WHO developed the Global Vaccine Safety Blueprint in 2011. This strategic plan is based on an in-depth analysis of the vaccine safety landscape that involved many stakeholders. This analysis reviewed existing systems and international vaccine safety activities and assessed the financial resources required to operate them. The Blueprint sets three main strategic goals to optimize the safety of vaccines through effective use of pharmacovigilance principles and methods: to ensure minimal vaccine safety capacity in all countries; to provide enhanced capacity for specific circumstances; and to establish a global support network to assist national authorities with capacity building and crisis management. In early 2012, the Global Vaccine Safety Initiative (GVSI) was launched to bring together and explore synergies among on-going vaccine safety activities. The Global Vaccine Action Plan has identified the Blueprint as its vaccine safety strategy. There is an enormous opportunity to raise awareness for vaccine safety in LMIC and to garner support from a large number of stakeholders for the GVSI between now and 2020. Synergies and resource mobilization opportunities presented by the Decade of Vaccines can enhance monitoring and response to vaccine safety issues, thereby leading to more equitable delivery of vaccines worldwide.

Real-time digital holographic microscopy using the graphic processing unit.

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a well-known powerful method allowing both the amplitude and phase of a specimen to be simultaneously observed. In order to obtain a reconstructed image from a hologram, numerous calculations for the Fresnel diffraction are required. The Fresnel diffraction can be accelerated by the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) algorithm. However, real-time reconstruction from a hologram is difficult even if we use a recent central processing unit (CPU) to calculate the Fresnel diffraction by the FFT algorithm. In this paper, we describe a real-time DHM system using a graphic processing unit (GPU) with many stream processors, which allows use as a highly parallel processor. The computational speed of the Fresnel diffraction using the GPU is faster than that of recent CPUs. The real-time DHM system can obtain reconstructed images from holograms whose size is 512 x 512 grids in 24 frames per second.

Novel DNA/polymer conjugate for intelligent antisense reagent with improved nuclease resistance.

Antisense technology provides an effective strategy to inhibit synthesis of the gene product. We prepared a novel antisense reagent comprised of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) and a thermo responsive polymer, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). The conjugate inhibited gene expression in a dose-dependent manner. The ODN-PNIPAAm conjugate demonstrated excellent resistance to S1 nuclease. In particular, PNIPAAm-modified antisense ODN at the 3',5'-ends of the ODN provided complete resistance against nuclease at 37 degrees C, which is above the phase transition temperature of the PNIPAAm side chain. These characteristics of the conjugate suggest it may have potential for use in a new gene delivery system as part of an antisense strategy.