Development of Universal Influenza Vaccines

There is a significant national initiative to develop universal influenza vaccines that can provide broadly protective immunity to many different strains of influenza. We are interested in designing vaccine strategies that will take advantage of our current understanding of the many mechanisms that contribute to protective immunity. Projects currently ongoing in the laboratory relate to novel molecular constructs used in animal models of vaccination to study the elicitation, persistence and role of broadly protective antibodies and T cells in the local environment of the lung.

Memory CD4 T cells from healthy, normal donors can be rapidly mobilized upon infection with even novel influenza virus strains: can recognize autologous APC infected with pandemic as well as seasonal H1N1 virus.