Lay summary
Staphylococcus aureus causes hospital and community acquired disease world-wide and the steady rise of antibiotic resistant strains of S. aureus is of global concern. New Zealand has amongst the highest rates of staphylococcal disease in the developed world and with the ever-increasing failure of antibiotics, other options such as vaccination are vital. It is widely agreed that sterilizing immunity towards S. aureus is not possible, but a prophylactic vaccine to reduce the incidence and severity of infection is possible. We have developed a vaccine that generates blocking antibodies against a set of important virulence factors called the Staphylococcal Superantigen-Like (SSL) exoproteins. We seek to develop this vaccine towards human clinical trials.