Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology have demonstrated pre-clinical success for a universal flu vaccine in a new paper published in Nature Communications.
Influenza is thought to be a highly variable virus, able to mutate and escape immunity built up in the population due to its circulation in previous seasons. However, influenza seasons tend to be dominated by a limited number of antigenically and genetically distinct influenza viruses. This creates a paradox as influenza is thought of as being highly variable while in reality influenza seasons are dominated by only a few strains.
