“New research may bring scientists one step closer to developing a vaccine that protects against hundreds of strains of meningococcus B, the most common cause of bacterial meningitis,” according to research published last week in Science Translational Medicine, HealthDay News reports. Researchers used methods that allowed them to identify the most effective vaccine candidate, technology that could be used to develop vaccines for malaria and AIDS, the news service notes (7/15).

“Vaccines against some strains of meningitis have been used for decades, but the method for creating them was not effective in developing a vaccine against the most common variety of the meningitis bacteria, called group B,” VOA News writes (Chimes, 7/15).