Credit: NIAID Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) ranks among the globally most important causes of infections in humans and is considered a dreaded hospital pathogen. Active and passive immunisation against multi-resistant strains is seen as a potentially valuable alternative to antibiotic therapy. However, all vaccine candidates so far have been clinically unsuccessful. With an epitope-based immunisation, scientists at Cologne University Hospital and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have now described a new vaccination strategy against S. aureus in the Nature Partner Journal NPJ VACCINES. S. aureus causes life-threatening conditions such as deep wound infections, sepsis, endocarditis, pneumonia or osteomyelitis. Furthermore, the increase in antibiotic resistance such as in case of the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) poses new challenges in medicine. In the past, numerous vaccines against S. aureus were developed, but without exception they proved unsuccessful in the clinical trial stages. "For the future development of vaccines, this means that the traditional approaches in vaccine development have to be qualitatively changed in order to achieve a breakthrough for an effective vaccine against S. aureus," explains Prof. Dr. Martin Krönke, Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at Cologne University Hospital.