The sidekick
Scientists are now working towards developing efficient vaccines out of 'complements', proteins which safeguard against disease-causing pathogens (New Scientist, Vo1149, No 2014).
Douglas Fearon and his team at the University of Cambridge, UK, and immunologists from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, US, are experimenting with the complement protein C3. They believe that if pieces of C3 are attatched to a simple protein, it would transform the protein into 'immunological enemy number one'.