{"id":26161,"date":"2026-06-15T13:01:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/?p=26161"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:01:03","slug":"new-edition-of-ciencia-con-tapas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/2026\/06\/15\/new-edition-of-ciencia-con-tapas\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW EDITION OF \u201cCIENCIA CON TAPAS\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cVaccines: The science of prevention\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Institute for Research in Biotechnology and Health (IDiBE-UMH) held a new edition of Ciencia con tapas<\/em> last Friday, 5 June, as part of the \u201cScience and Technology Fair of Elche (FeCiTElx)\u201d, hosted at Casa Mediterr\u00e1neo in Alicante and attended by a large audience.<\/p>\n

The session was presented by the Assistant Vice-Rector for Research Management at UMH, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Azor\u00edn, and the Director of IDiBE, Antonio Ferrer. It was moderated by PhD student Pedro Valent\u00edn Bad\u00eda, a member of the IDiBE Outreach Committee. The invited speaker on this occasion was Dr. Alicia Sol\u00f3rzano.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sol\u00f3rzano opened her talk by showing images of children affected by diseases such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, and measles, inviting the audience to identify them and discuss whether vaccines against these diseases are still administered today. She reminded attendees that smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980 and that polio is now close to eradication thanks to vaccination efforts. She also highlighted the benefits of vaccines in preventing disease, using as an example the demonstrated efficacy of the phase III clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

She then defined and explained different types of vaccines, including inactivated vaccines, subunit vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, and mRNA vaccines. She emphasized that, prior to the emergence of COVID-19, no mRNA vaccine had been approved. Drawing on her expertise, she focused particularly on this platform, in which mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles is administered to induce the expression of the encoded protein in host cells, thereby triggering an immune response. She also outlined the advantages of this technology.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sol\u00f3rzano went on to discuss varicella-zoster virus and herpes zoster, noting that the herpes zoster vaccine shows very high efficacy and provides protection for more than 10 years. She also pointed out that observational studies suggest potential additional benefits of herpes zoster vaccination, including a reduced risk of developing dementia and cardiovascular diseases. She further outlined her research efforts aimed at developing a lyophilized mRNA-based vaccine against herpes zoster.<\/p>\n

Finally, she highlighted the importance of influenza virus research and the development of a universal mRNA-based influenza vaccine to provide broad and long-lasting protection.<\/p>\n

The session concluded with a lively Q&A discussion with the audience. The event was closed by the Vice-Rector for Students and Coordination at UMH, Jos\u00e9 Juan L\u00f3pez Esp\u00edn.<\/p>\n

As tradition dictates, the evening ended with tapas and drinks shared among attendees.<\/p>\n

M\u00aa Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cVaccines: The science of prevention\u201d The Institute for Research in Biotechnology and Health (IDiBE-UMH) held a new edition of Ciencia con tapas last Friday, 5 June, as part of the \u201cScience and Technology Fair of Elche (FeCiTElx)\u201d, hosted at Casa Mediterr\u00e1neo in Alicante and attended by a large audience. The session was presented by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30369,"featured_media":26134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibe.umh.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}