
The hepatitis B vaccine is one of only three vaccines that are routinely given to newborns in the first days of life. But the current hepatitis B vaccine has limitations: multiple “booster” doses are needed, and it can’t be given to premature babies weighing less than 2 kg.
Annette Scheid, MD, a neonatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is interested in leveraging infant immune differences to create a better hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. “The reality is that we have to vaccinate several times,” she says. “But we all dream of a vaccine that you give only once.” …