Molecular Genetics of Influenza haemagglutinin production: Developing a rational basis for optimising vaccine yield

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Pandemic influenza presents a major threat to global public health. The ideal approach to countering this threat would be to develop a vaccine to prevent the disease. Unfortunately, however, because there are so many different types of influenza virus constantly circulating in humans and animals, and because the virus can mutate easily and quickly, scientists can?t predict exactly what the next pandemic virus will look like. It is not currently possible, therefore, to prepare in advance a vaccine that is guaranteed to work against any pandemic threat. For this reason, research scientists are trying to find ways of speeding up the process of developing and producing a vaccine once a pandemic has begun. An important part of this is maximising vaccine production capacity since during an outbreak, tens of millions of vaccine doses would need to be produced each week to have an impact on the first wave of disease. Influenza virus vaccines are produced in eggs and so the number of vaccine doses that can be produced from a given number of eggs is crucial. We know that this yield is quite variable depending on the particular virus strain that is used for vaccine production, but we don?t know why. This research project aims to understand the reasons behind this variable yield and to use this knowledge to find ways of developing high yielding vaccine strains that will help manufacturers produce the maximum possible number of vaccine doses in the shortest possible time when a pandemic strikes.