Recognizing some of the most significant medical discoveries from around the world, The Gairdner Foundation has awarded Dr. Rino Rappuoli, Chief Scientist and Head External R&D at GSK Vaccines, Siena, Italy, with the 2017 Canada Gairdner Award.
One of seven laureates to receive the award, Dr. Rappuoli was honored for pioneering the genomic approach, known as reverse vaccinology, used to develop a vaccine against meningococcus B which has already saved many lives worldwide. In the process of reverse vaccinology the entire genomic sequence of a pathogen is screened using bioinformatics tools to help determine which genes code for which proteins, against which vaccines can be developed. His work on reverse vaccinology led to the licensure of the first meningococcus B vaccine approved in Europe and Canada in 2013 and USA in 2015. The vaccine against men B is now approved in more than 35 countries with more than 10 million doses distributed from Italy around the world.