The invention of vaccines targeted at major infectious diseases and their effective implementation via immunization programs have led to dramatic improvements in public health worldwide. Vaccine research and development (R&D) has progressed dramatically in the postgenomics and information era. Informatics is or has the potential for revolutionizing every aspect of the pre- and postlicensure vaccine enterprise. New bioinformatics technologies are being invented and applied to address various vaccine-related questions using the large amounts of sequence, gene expression, and clinical data. From tracking immunization history in computerized registries to modeling impact of alternative immunization strategies and timely detection of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases or safety concerns, informatics is also changing postlicensure immunization policy and programs.

We invite authors to present original research as well as review articles that will focus on the development and applications of cutting edge vaccine informatics technologies to advance vaccine R&D and improve immunization programs. The special issue will become an international forum for researches to report and summarize the most recent developments and ideas in the new exciting field. The topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• Reverse vaccinology
• Computational methods to predict vaccine targets, including protective antigens and immune epitopes
• Analysis of vaccine-induced host responses using high throughput methods (e.g., microarrays)
• Case studies of applying bioinformatics approaches in vaccine development
• Computerized immunization registries
• Informatics methods for improving surveillance of vaccine safety and efficacy
• Modeling of impact of immunizations against target diseases (e.g., pandemic influenza)
• Vaccine database and analysis systems
• Vaccine data integration and literature mining

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jbb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: