Pitt to lead supercomputer study of vaccines

PITTSBURGH - University of Pittsburgh researchers will lead a study about how to use vaccines to control infectious disease outbreaks that will be simulated at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is paying for the $10 million international study. Major research partners will include Penn State University and Imperial College London. The Gates Foundation's eventual goal is to develop vaccines for newborns that can be delivered without injections and not require refrigerated storage. The study will focus on the flu, measles and dengue, a mosquito-borne illness. But it will eventually include whooping cough, polio, malaria and tuberculosis. The Gates Foundation was created in 2000 by the Microsoft chairman and... [read full story]