Vaccines News

March 2, 2026

Top Headlines

Shingles Vaccine May Slow Biological Aging and Reduce Inflammation

Feb. 26, 2026 A shingles shot might do more than prevent a painful rash — it could actually help slow down the aging process. In a large national study of more than 3,800 Americans age 70 and older, those who received the shingles vaccine showed slower ...

Scientists Create Universal Nasal Spray Vaccine That Protects Against COVID, Flu, and Pneumonia

Feb. 23, 2026 Scientists at Stanford Medicine have unveiled a bold new kind of “universal” vaccine that could one day protect against everything from COVID-19 and the flu to bacterial pneumonia and even common ...

This Reengineered HPV Vaccine Trains T Cells to Hunt Down Cancer

Feb. 18, 2026 Northwestern researchers have shown that when it comes to cancer vaccines, arrangement can be just as important as ingredients. By repositioning a small fragment of an HPV protein on a DNA-based nanovaccine, the team dramatically strengthened the ...

Viagra and Shingles Vaccine Show Surprising Promise Against Alzheimer’s

Feb. 18, 2026 A major new study has spotlighted three familiar medicines that could take on an unexpected new role in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease — with a shingles vaccine emerging as the front-runner. After reviewing 80 existing drugs, an ...

Large Study Finds No Link Between MRNA COVID Vaccine in Pregnancy and Autism

Feb. 15, 2026 Researchers tracked more than 400 toddlers to see whether mRNA COVID-19 vaccination during or just before pregnancy was linked to autism or developmental delays. After detailed assessments of speech, ...

New Nasal Vaccine Shows Strong Protection Against H5N1 Bird Flu

Feb. 5, 2026 As bird flu continues to circulate in animals and spill over into humans, researchers are racing to stop it before it adapts to spread widely between people. A new nasal spray vaccine showed strong protection against H5N1 in animal tests, ...

A Room Full of Flu Patients and No One Got Sick

Jan. 11, 2026 In a striking real-world experiment, flu patients spent days indoors with healthy volunteers, but the virus never spread. Researchers found that limited coughing and well-mixed indoor air kept virus levels low, even with close contact. Age may have ...

Flu Drug Once Blamed for Seizures in Kids Gets a Surprising Reversal

Jan. 5, 2026 A long-running debate over Tamiflu’s safety in children may finally be settled. Researchers found that influenza, not the antiviral medication, was linked to serious neuropsychiatric events like seizures and hallucinations. Even more striking, ...

Stanford Scientists Uncover Why MRNA COVID Vaccines Can Trigger Heart Inflammation

Dec. 27, 2025 Stanford scientists have uncovered how mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can very rarely trigger heart inflammation in young men — and how that risk might be reduced. They found that the vaccines can spark a ...

AI Found a Way to Stop a Virus Before It Enters Cells

Dec. 15, 2025 Researchers discovered a hidden molecular “switch” that herpes viruses rely on to invade cells. By combining AI, simulations, and lab experiments, they identified and altered a single amino acid that shut down viral entry. What once might have ...

AI Finds a Surprising Monkeypox Weak Spot That Could Rewrite Vaccines

Dec. 12, 2025 Researchers used AI to pinpoint a little-known monkeypox protein that provokes strong protective antibodies. When the team tested this protein as a vaccine ingredient in mice, it produced a potent immune response. The discovery could lead to ...

A Routine Shingles Shot May Offer Powerful Defense Against Dementia

Dec. 3, 2025 A unique vaccine rollout in Wales gave researchers an accidental natural experiment that revealed a striking reduction in dementia among seniors who received the shingles vaccine. The protective effect held steady across multiple analyses and was ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:47pm EST

Bird Flu’s Surprising Heat Tolerance Has Scientists Worried

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers discovered why bird flu can survive temperatures that stop human flu in its tracks. A key gene, PB1, gives avian viruses the ability to replicate even at fever-level heat. Mice ...

COVID Vaccine Linked to Fewer Infections and Allergies in Kids With Eczema

Nov. 8, 2025 New research suggests the COVID-19 vaccine could help children with eczema stay healthier overall. Vaccinated kids had lower rates of infections and allergies, including asthma and rhinitis, compared ...

Scientists Discover COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Survival

Oct. 28, 2025 Researchers found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines significantly increased survival in lung and skin cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. The vaccine appears to prime the immune system in a powerful, ...

Bird Flu Hiding in Cheese? The Surprising New Discovery

Oct. 21, 2025 Researchers discovered that avian influenza (H5N1) can survive in raw milk cheese made from contaminated milk, even after the 60-day aging process required by the FDA. However, highly acidic cheeses ...

This New Blood Test Can Catch Cancer 10 Years Early

Oct. 13, 2025 Scientists at Mass General Brigham have created HPV-DeepSeek, a blood test that can detect HPV-linked head and neck cancers nearly a decade before diagnosis. By finding viral DNA in the bloodstream, ...

This Experimental “super Vaccine” Stopped Cancer Cold in the Lab

Oct. 13, 2025 UMass Amherst researchers have developed a groundbreaking nanoparticle-based cancer vaccine that prevented melanoma, pancreatic, and triple-negative breast cancers in mice—with up to 88% remaining ...

A Flu Test You Can Chew

Oct. 3, 2025 Flu detection could soon be as simple as chewing gum. Scientists have created a molecular sensor that releases a thyme-like flavor when it encounters influenza, offering a low-tech, taste-based ...

The Hidden Group That Loses COVID Protection Fast

Sep. 18, 2025 Why do some people stay protected after vaccination while others quickly lose immunity? Researchers in Japan tracked over 2,500 people for 18 months and found four distinct immune response patterns. ...

How Long Can One RSV Shot Protect Seniors? Study Shows Surprising Two-Year Shield

Sep. 1, 2025 A single RSV vaccine dose is proving to be a powerful shield for older adults, significantly reducing hospitalizations and severe illness over two ...

More Likely to Be Struck by Lightning Than Get Tetanus. So Why the Boosters?

Aug. 27, 2025 Researchers propose that the U.S. could safely drop adult tetanus and diphtheria boosters, saving $1 billion annually, since childhood vaccinations ...

The Common Cold’s Unexpected Superpower Against COVID

Aug. 26, 2025 A nationwide study found that recent colds caused by rhinoviruses can give short-term protection against COVID-19. Children benefit most, as their immune systems react strongly with antiviral ...

Columbia Scientists May Have Found a Universal Antiviral

Aug. 18, 2025 A rare immune disorder has inspired a potential universal antiviral therapy. By mimicking the mutation s unique inflammation signature, researchers developed an mRNA-based treatment that stopped ...

Scientists Detect Virus Traces in Blood That May Unlock Long COVID’s Mystery

Aug. 12, 2025 Scientists have found protein fragments from the COVID-19 virus hidden inside tiny cellular packages in the blood of long COVID patients, offering the first potential measurable biomarker for the ...

Researchers Discover Key Social Factors That Triple Long COVID Risk

Aug. 4, 2025 New research led by Mass General Brigham reveals that people facing social challenges—like food insecurity, financial strain, and limited healthcare access—are two to three times more likely to ...

This Vaccine Uses Dental Floss Instead of Needles

Aug. 3, 2025 Scientists have discovered that flossing between your teeth could one day help vaccinate you. By targeting a uniquely permeable gum tissue called the junctional epithelium, this new method stimulates ...

COVID Vaccines Saved 2. 5M Lives Globally—a Death Averted Per 5,400 Shots

July 27, 2025 Between 2020 and 2024, COVID-19 vaccines saved 2.5 million lives globally, preventing one death for every 5,400 doses. A groundbreaking worldwide study led by researchers from Università Cattolica ...

One Pregnancy Shot Slashes Baby RSV Hospitalizations by 72% — and Shields for Months

July 21, 2025 A new UK study shows that vaccinating pregnant women against RSV has led to a staggering 72% drop in hospitalizations of newborns with severe lung infections. By passing virus-fighting antibodies to ...

This Virus Infects Millions—and We Just Discovered Its Secret Weapon

June 30, 2025 Scientists have discovered a stealthy mechanism that cytomegalovirus (CMV)—the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the U.S.—uses to infiltrate blood vessel cells while evading immune ...

One Shot to Stop HIV: MIT's Bold Vaccine Breakthrough

June 19, 2025 Researchers from MIT and Scripps have unveiled a promising new HIV vaccine approach that generates a powerful immune response with just one dose. By combining two immune-boosting adjuvants alum and ...

Scientists Discover Llama Antibodies That Shut Down COVID — and Its Future Variants

June 16, 2025 Powerful llama-derived antibodies could be the key to stopping not just current SARS viruses, but future ones too. Scientists have discovered a unique class of nanobodies that clamp the coronavirus ...

New mRNA Vaccine Is More Effective and Less Costly to Develop

June 3, 2025 A new "trans-amplifying" mRNA vaccine delivers powerful immunity using 40 times less material and could protect against many virus strains at once. Scientists say it may pave the way for ...

Large-Scale Immunity Profiling Grants Insights Into Flu Virus Evolution

June 3, 2025 A new study shows how person-to-person variation in antibody immunity plays a key role in shaping which influenza (flu) strains dominate in a ...

Researchers Engineer a Herpes Virus to Turn on T Cells for Immunotherapy

May 28, 2025 A team identified herpes virus saimiri, which infects the T cells of squirrel monkeys, as a source of proteins that activate pathways in T cells that are needed to promote T cell ...

HIV Vaccine Study Uncovers Powerful New Antibody Target

May 27, 2025 In the long battle to create an effective HIV vaccine, scientists have made a major leap forward. A new study shows that a series of vaccines can coax the immune system to produce powerful antibodies ...

Engineered Bacteria Can Deliver Antiviral Therapies, Vaccines

May 21, 2025 New research demonstrates how specially engineered bacteria taken orally can operate as a delivery system for vaccines and antiviral ...

New Blood Test Shows Superior Sensitivity in Detecting HPV-Associated Head and Neck Cancers

May 20, 2025 Head and neck cancer researchers are reporting the development and testing of HPV-DeepSeek, a novel liquid biopsy assay. In their new study, HPV-DeepSeek achieved 99% sensitivty and specifity for ...

Two HIV Vaccine Trials Show Proof of Concept for Pathway to Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies

May 15, 2025 A decades-long scientific challenge in HIV vaccine development has been finding a way to train the immune system to produce antibodies that can target many variants of the virus. Traditional ...

Particles Carrying Multiple Vaccine Doses Could Reduce the Need for Follow-Up Shots

May 15, 2025 MIT scientists have designed self-boosting vaccines that release doses over time from a single injection. This breakthrough could make multi-shot vaccines one-and-done, protecting children in even ...

Yellow Fever Vaccination: How Strong Immune Responses Are Triggered

May 14, 2025 Researchers show how specific immune cells are activated by the vaccine -- an important starting point for the development of new ...

New Study Offers Insights Into Designing Safe, Effective Nasal Vaccines

May 14, 2025 Most vaccines -- and boosters -- are injected directly into muscle tissue, usually in the upper arm, to kickstart the body's immune system in the fight against disease. But for respiratory ...