FASTER, PLEASE: Vaccine Trial for Common Cold Nothing to Sneeze At.

Per an Emory press release, even though scientists in the ’60s were able to develop a vaccine effective against one type of rhinovirus, it didn’t work against the many other varieties that exist; Mashable pegs that figure at more than 160. So Moore mixed together 50 different rhinoviruses—gathered from immunologist James Gern, who keeps what he calls “one of the world’s biggest collections of kid snot”—into one vaccine, “like a bunch of slightly different Christmas ornaments.” Post-vaccine, the monkeys had developed antibodies in their blood for 49 out of the 50 viruses; similar results were found in the mice. Moore is hoping to eventually test the vaccine out on humans. “We think that creating a vaccine for the common cold can be reduced to technical challenges related to manufacturing,” he says.

We think the common cold is just a nuisance, but in terms of lost productivity and sheer human misery, it’s pretty major.