Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) became one of at least six institutions this week to win grant funding for a long-lasting and more effective flu vaccine as part of the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute’s Grand Challenge for Universal Influenza Vaccine Development.
Of the $12 million granted in new research announced Aug. 29 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the organization Flu Lab, OHSU will receive $1.7 million.
OHSU and its contemporaries hope to replace the existing, annual flu shot with something better. In OHSU’s case, researchers will utilize its existing vaccine platform for development, as it has already been utilized for HIV and tuberculosis vaccine development. The platform works by inserting pieces of target pathogens into the common herpes virus cytomegalovirus (CMV), triggering a long-lasting immune response and attacking infections where they begin.
“CMV-based vaccine protection happens quickly where the pathogen enters the body,” said Dr. Jonah Sacha, lead researcher for the new flu vaccine project and a professor at the OHSU Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute. “The trick will be to see how well it can fight the flu virus, which replicates very quickly.”
Flu vaccine development efforts will be tested on the cynomolgus macaque, a monkey vulnerable to influenza. Specifically, OHSU researchers and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada, will examine the 1918 pandemic flu strain against these monkeys. The national lab will be involved as that strain is so deadly it can only be safely handled in a biosafety level 4 laboratory.
Currently, seasonal flu outbreaks are estimated to be responsible for between 290,000 and 650,000 deaths annually.