Pharmacology, vaccinomics, and the second golden age of vaccinology

To my knowledge, this issue of CPT is the first to be concerned exclusively with vaccines. The articles herein span the spectrum of new vaccine development, vaccine financing, clinical trials, new vaccine adjuvants and nanoparticles, vaccinomics, cancer vaccines, immunopotentiators, immunosenescence, ethical issues, new vaccine delivery technologies, and DNA vaccine technology. The attempt was to provide a relatively broad overview and yet highlight major areas of scientific advances in vaccine development, delivery, and use. It is my hope that this issue of the journal will prove seminal in providing recognition of the need and opportunities for vaccinologists and clinical pharmacologists to pursue science together. The field of pharmacology has provided significant and ongoing major advances in clinical medicine and global health. Most recently, the fields of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics have driven the concept and development of individualized medicine, and this has informed similar advances in the science underlying vaccine development. It is hoped that clinical pharmacologists will see the field of vaccinology as a vital area in which to apply their science and become increasingly more involved in the field. If so, this issue will have been a success and all of us will be the better for it.