Polio Vaccine

Polio, which was once an extremely common disease that crippled children and adults alike, has been largely eradicated from the U.S. in the 20th century. However, there are still outbreaks of polio throughout the world, with particularly high rates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Polio vaccination has been a mainstay of public health efforts, but the vaccine is expensive to produce and is therefore a large burden on national health budgets. To address these concerns, a research team at the University of Michigan has developed a new way to produce the vaccine that is cheap and safe to produce. The process uses a common yeast cell to create a safe, effective vaccine that is not reliant on costly manufacturing techniques.