Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, United States, are reporting promising findings from a new vaccine strategy for norovirus that uses nanoparticles as carriers. Norovirus and rotavirus are both causes of acute gastroenteritis, with rotavirus causing severe diarrhea in children, and killing an estimated 527,000 worldwide each year. Norovirus is one of the most common causes of foodborne disease in the United States, and kills 200,000 children annually. The new strategy uses a nanocarrier, called a “P particle”, as a scaffold for a variety of vaccines. The researchers inserted rotavirus antigen into the P particle and found it boosted immune response to rotavirus, as well as norovirus, in mice. Xi Jason Jiang, one of the researchers, said “[T]he dual vaccine holds promise for controlling gastroenteritis in children.” The P particle is also extremely stable, which is an important quality for vaccine use in developing countries. The team’s findings were published in the Journal of Virology.