"Researchers Chase A Better Fix For The Seasonal Flu" - Meghan Thompson
The flu and complications from it can kill as many as 56,000 Americans every year while costing $10 billion in doctor visits, hospitalizations and medication. But since the strains change so quickly, its vaccine is only around 20 to 60 percent effective. So researchers across the country and world are trying to develop a universal and longer-lasting solution. “Many vaccines are long-lasting, such as measles, mumps rubella. They’re given once, and then, we are protected for life. And we hope that we have something similar now for influenza viruses,” said Peter Palese, PhD, professor of microbiology, medicine, and infectious diseases and chair of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Palese has figured out a way to make a virus within a head that the human immune system ignores, so that instead it fights off the stalk, the part that doesn’t change much. “We want to redirect the immune system to make a protective immune response against the portions of the virus and areas of the virus which are not changing,” added Dr. Palese.
- Peter Palese, PhD, Professor, Chair, Microbiology, Professor
