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

大流行性流感对全球公共卫生构成重大威胁。对付这种威胁的理想方法是开发一种疫苗来预防这种疾病。然而，不幸的是，由于有如此多不同类型的流感病毒不断在人类和动物中传播，而且由于病毒可以很容易和迅速地变异，科学家们不能？我无法准确预测下一个大流行病毒的样子。因此，目前还不可能提前准备一种疫苗，保证对任何大流行威胁都有效。出于这个原因，研究科学家正试图找到在大流行开始后加快开发和生产疫苗的方法。其中一个重要部分是最大限度地提高疫苗生产能力，因为在疫情期间，每周需要生产数千万剂疫苗才能对第一波疾病产生影响。流感病毒疫苗是在鸡蛋中生产的，因此从一定数量的鸡蛋中可以生产的疫苗剂量是至关重要的。我们知道，根据用于疫苗生产的特定病毒株，这种产量变化很大，但我们不知道？我知道为什么。该研究项目旨在了解产量变化背后的原因，并利用这一知识找到开发高产疫苗株的方法，这将有助于制造商在大流行来临时在尽可能短的时间内生产尽可能多的疫苗剂量。

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.