Conventional technology used to create vaccines for a limited number of diseases such as polio and tetanus is not effective against cancer, HIV, hepatitis C, and a legion of other deadly and disabling diseases.  But the promise of using a new generation of technology—DNA vaccines—to stimulate the body’s own immune responses has been curtailed by a lack of an effective delivery system.  Use of virus carriers poses uncertainties regarding potential mutation and unwanted immune responses against the carrier. Lipids and the “gene gun” may not achieve sufficient levels of immune response.  And none of these methods is inexpensive. Now, there is growing evidence that an electroporation-based delivery system from Inovio Biomedical (AMEX: “INO”) has the potential to become a preferred delivery method for a wide range of therapeutic and preventive vaccines.  In this episode, Dr. Richard Heller of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine and the Moffitt Cancer Center discusses how electroporation “works” to deliver a DNA vaccine and enhance the potency of that vaccine as well.  Dr. Heller is currently the principal investigator in an ongoing Phase I melanoma clinical study to test the safety and tolerability of direct intratumoral delivery of plasmid-based IL-12 using the electroporation system of Inovio Biomedical.