Influenza is probably one of the
highest risks
on every government's risk
register.
We know that there will be
another influenza pandemic,
and it will have a massive
impact.
The cost of the next influenza
pandemic could be catastrophic—
not only to global health but to
the global economy as well.
In the face of these threats,
the world's top scientists and
innovators
are bringing new methods,
technologies,
and collaborations to one of
science's
most crucial challenges.
If we have a highly effective
influenza vaccine,
we won't have to worry about the
threat
of a new influenza pandemic.
Creating a universal vaccine—
one with the power to provide
longer-lasting immunity
against many strains—
is no easy feat.
The diversity of influenza
viruses out there
is really incredible.
If we only had to make a vaccine
that protected against
one like specific strain of
influenza
I don't think that would be very
hard.
The problem is we want to
protect against
an influenza virus that might
show up in a decade.
You cannot go and just develop a
vaccine,
and then make the vaccine and
then distribute it.
You need a pharmaceutical
company
that takes this through a phase
three trial;
then it needs to go to the
market.
An effective next generation
vaccine, even if it gave three
to five years of protection, it
would be a major step forward.
These complex challenges require
innovative solutions.
The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation
partnered with Flu Lab
to issue a grand challenge to
researchers
across the scientific spectrum
to bring transformative concepts
to the search for a
universal influenza vaccine.
An exciting group of innovators
answered the call.
What I've been doing is applying
chemical information
through antibodies to vaccine
design,
is what we've been doing for
HIV,
and what we have the opportunity
to do now
is to apply that same chemistry,
technology,
to the universal influenza
problem.
The concept was to use
immunogenicity
and a large panel of human
antibodies
to identify the best epitopes
from multiple influenza strains
to best target a large spectrum
of strains.
Our technology will change the
way vaccines are made.
It skips that process of
necessitating the use of
live viruses to grow in eggs.
We synthesized the components
to be able to evaluate whether
or not they induce
the protective immune responses
that are going to be needed
in the human population.
We came up with a method called
reverse genetics.
We can make influenza virus from
plasmids.
So that's the major
breakthrough.
Across the globe, governments
and philanthropy
are supporting a wide range of
scientific discoveries
and new technologies.
The biologicals which are now
used in cancer therapy
have also a promising future for
more common diseases
like influenza.
New sequencing technologies
enable others
to analyze sequences more
rapidly.
We have this vast database now
of all influenza strains really
around the globe.
There is so many information
that you can extract,
for example, the computer is
getting faster,
you can run molecular dynamics,
to a timescale that you can
never run before.
I've spent a long time trying to
develop vaccines
that will induce cytotoxic
T-cell responses,
and the type of vaccine that
we're producing will be
very broadly protective.
We're using the proteins that
don't keep changing,
and if you have a strong immune
response against those,
then you are protected against
whichever influenza virus
comes around that cause
infections.
We're trying to use fluorescence
microscopy
so we can measure how much HA or
NA is packaged into the virus.
Building on this momentum, the
Sabin Vaccine Institute launched
the Influenzer Initiative to
engage
creative and diverse thinkers
and inspire them
to apply their talents to one of
Mother Nature's
most vexing challenges.
How do you get new people in,
how do you get new people in
different disciplines.
You need to bring people
together
and make people's research
accessible.
I come from the field of ecology
and evolution,
and I am always challenged in an
excellent way by listening
to talks by immunologists and
epidemiologists.
I think that's a really key
thing that we have
different collaborators that
have
slightly different backgrounds.
Most advances come from starting
in one field,
and then insight from a separate
field
and then applying over.
So that's where big
technological changes actually
occur.
It's, you know, like anything in
science;
it's a composite of many
different fields and studies.
And if we could bring together
the new disciplines,
machine learning, the systems immunology
to start to really understand
the data
in a more complex fashion,
I think that that may hold the
key.
Innovative initiatives and deep
collaborations
among diverse minds like these
will drive
a convergence of knowledge.
New methods and technologies are
being integrated
into networks of data-sharing
and analytics
to transform influenza vaccine
development.
Together we can make influenza
history.
