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Researchers at the University of Georgia have provided vaccine developers with a new tool that could lead to the development of novel vaccines that will protect against a wider range of diseases or work against diseases that are currently hard to prevent.

As published in the May 23 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team headed by Robert J. Woods demonstrated precisely using a 3D model how antibodies react differently to two common disease-causing bacteria – Group B Streptococcus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

The 3D model utilized is a technique that gives researchers the power to effectively see how the body's antibodies bind to the chains of sugars on the outer coats of bacteria.  In the event of no antibodies binding to the sugars and no immune response is triggered, the researchers will then work on the mechanism by which the sugars will be chemically altered so that the body in return will recognize the bacteria as a threat, and so will exude a defense.

Read more at UGA News.