By Tarun Sai Lomte Reviewed by Lauren Hardaker Dec 4 2025 Researchers engineered an injectable silica-based scaffold that trains the immune system to attack S. aureus on medical implants, cutting bacterial load dramatically and even clearing infection entirely in some animals. Study: Scaffold vaccination for prevention of orthopedic device infectio n. Image credit: Connect Images - Curated/Shutterstock.com In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ,