Human Vaccines Project Launches Study of How the Immune System Responds to the Flu

With a goal of understanding the immune system to develop longer-lasting protection against influenza (flu), researchers will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the human immune system’s response to flu. Participants in the study will be healthy men and women who will receive a standard influenza vaccine from whom scientists will take a range of measurements to analyze individual response to the vaccine. In addition to measuring the antibody response to the flu, the study will also look at gene regulation, the influence of the microbiome and other factors such as gender. Researchers will also take samples after vaccination of participants’ lymph nodes and bone marrow where key immune cells reside. “By sampling the blood frequently and getting samples from lymph nodes and the bone marrow, we can provide one of the most comprehensive studies of the immune response to influenza that scientists have ever been able to undertake,” says Wayne Koff, CEO and president of the Human Vaccines Project. “Such work will accelerate the development of more effective influenza vaccines and may lead to the development of a universal influenza vaccine that provides durable protection against influenza even as it changes from year to year. The study will also help elucidate mechanisms of the human immune system that are universal to how people fight disease.”

The study is part of the nonprofit Human Vaccines Project’s global consortium of researchers to systematically decode the human immune system to create better prevention, diagnostics and treatments for a range of diseases. Sequiris will provide the vaccine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center will lead the study with scientists from the University of British Columbia, Telethon Kids Institute in Australia, University of California, San Diego, J. Craig Venter Institute, the Scripps Research Institute and La Jolla Institute providing expertise and analysis.