Vaccines have proved to be the most cost-effective healthcare intervention ever deployed. However, over 10 million deaths each year could be avoided in the developing world if we had new improved vaccines. The university has leading vaccines in clinical development for many major infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, pandemic influenza and hepatitis. This session will review the translational infrastructure and overseas collaborations that underpin these programmes, outline how fundamental molecular insights can rapidly impact on vaccine design, and assess the prospects for new vaccine deployment against these major killers in the next 10 years.