Vaccines and the Future of Human Immunology

In this issue of Immunity, a collection of detailed reviews summarizes needs, opportunities, and roadblocks to the development of new vaccines, all in the context of our current knowledge and understanding of key aspects of immune function and microbial interactions with the host. This Perspective is designed to provide a broad overview that discusses our present limitations in designing effective novel vaccines for diseases that do not typically induce robust resistance in infected individuals and how the addition of a systems-level, multiplexed approach to the analysis of the human immune system can complement traditional highly focused research efforts to accelerate our progress toward this goal and the improvement of human health.