ABSTRACT
This section introduces the content of the course, provides a brief introduction to the 12 chapters of this reference textbook, and gives a brief overview of the value of vaccines as a commodity essential for public health. It also provides an overview of the key stakeholders in the vaccine field and global market. The core content of the book is distributed in chapters that cover the i) the vaccine design supported by a summary of the key concepts in virology and immunology; ii) the upstream processing of viral vaccines, including process intensification concepts; iii) the downstream processing with specific applications of purification and polishing steps to viral structures; iv) the analyses of the critical quality attributes of the viral product as well as the process analytical technologies that support the product release and process robustness validation; v) a series of case studies presenting licensed inactivated or attenuated vaccines (influenza vaccines), advanced vaccine technology platforms (virus vectored and virus like particles vaccines) and an update on licensed vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic, including mRNA vaccines.
