Figure 2

Whole Antigen Discovery. Taking a reverse vaccinology dynamic, the process of discovering candidate subunit vaccines begins with a microbial genome, perhaps newly sequence, progresses through an extensive computational stage, ultimately to deliver a shortlist of antigens which can be validated through subsequent laboratory examination. The computational stage can be empirical in nature; this is typified by the statistical approach embodied in vaxijen [98]. Or this stage can be bioinformatic; this involves predicting subcellular location and expression levels and the like. Or, this stage can take the form of a complex mathematical model which uses immunoinformatic models combined with mathematical methods, such as metabolic control theory [116], to predict cell-surface epitope populations.