Hepatitis C, which causes cirrhosis or liver cancer, infects more than 4 million people in the United States. However, unlike hepatitis A and B, hepatitis C has no vaccine, and it can remain undetected in the body for many years until symptoms of the disease begin appearing. Developing a vaccine against hepatitis C has been challenging, as the virus has eight molecular configurations that continually change and mutate. Patients with the disease often benefit from treatments of pegylated interferon, but the treatment comes with serious side effects that often cause patients to stop treatment.