Highlights of the DNA Vaccines 2011 Meeting

In July 2011, DNA vaccine researchers from the world over met once again to present and discuss their research at the 2011 DNA Vaccine meeting held July 12–14 in beautiful San Diego, CA along scenic Coronado Bay. This meeting, presented under the auspices of the International Society of DNA Vaccines, centered on the theme of " Building on Clinical Progress and Exploring New Targets ". This provocative meeting covered studies on a number of important immunotherapy and vaccine targets, including those for infectious agents as well as those for non-infectious diseases. A number of these studies are included in the special issue highlighting the presentations made at this meeting. As well, we are very pleased to have the opportunity to present these papers in a peer-reviewed Special Issue of the excellent journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. In this issue a number of important viral infectious agents are targeted, i.e., human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cytomega-lovirus (CMV) and Ebola. Bacterial and parasitic agents also were targeted, as exemplified by the papers included in this issue on Staphylococcus aureus and malaria, respectively. Likewise, several cancer immunotherapy papers targeting melanoma are highlighted. There has also been a continued interest and effort in the field to utilize immune co-stimulatory molecules to further drive the potential efficacy of DNA vaccines and immunotherapeutics. This is exemplified by papers in this issue using interleukin-12 (IL-12), CCL25 chemokine, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-28 (IL-28). Importantly, the use of these immunomodulatory agents has been applied to infectious agents as well as cancer. Lastly, there has been a continued interest and work in the area of applying " forcing " methods to assist the DNA to get into cells, with subsequent enhanced expression and associated biological activity. This is exemplified by presentations that include the use of in vivo electroporation as well as more novel delivery methods such as magneto-permeabilization and helium plasma, both of which are contact-independent modalities. All of these studies, as well as the others presented at the conference, have the important role of further documenting and potentially validating the clinical potential of the DNA plasmid vaccine and immunotherapy technology. In sum, we look forward to welcoming you and your colleagues back to San Diego in December 2012 for the next DNA Vaccines Meeting, which of note will occur 20 years after the first reports of the ability of genes expressed from naked DNA plasmids to …