[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6632\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EClosing in on a universal flu vaccine\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEvery year flu affects 5-15\u0026nbsp;% of the population in the northern hemisphere, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.euro.who.int\/en\/health-topics\/communicable-diseases\/influenza\/data-and-statistics\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eaccording\u003C\/a\u003E to the World Health Organization, and kills more people worldwide than Ebola and Zika combined.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany countries recommend that over-65s and people with certain conditions get inoculated every season against the flu, yet vaccines are not always effective as the virus constantly mutates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe panacea would be a universal flu jab that can kill any strain of the virus. However, that has proved elusive, until now. At a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, last week, several research teams said they were close to solving the puzzle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027This EU-funded work has brought the development of universal flu vaccines to a crucial point,\u0027 said Line Matthiessen, acting director of health at the EU\u0027s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. \u0027We are getting closer to our goal, but we must work together internationally to finish the job.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA number of potential new vaccines offer simultaneous protection against several forms of the flu \u2013 including pandemic ones. They have saved the lives of mice, ferrets and pigs exposed to strains as virulent as the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, and some are now being tested on patients.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EUncommon flu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This year was particularly bad,\u2019 Pasi Penttinen, from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told the gathering. \u2018Initial estimates suggest that a very high number of people have died of the common flu in the EU alone.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the big problems is that the protection offered by seasonal vaccines still hinges largely on blind luck.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Flu outbreaks are hard to prevent because the virus keeps evolving,\u2019 said Dr Alex Ramirez at iQur, a biotech start-up based in London, UK. \u2018Each year, pharmaceutical companies prepare vaccines by predicting what the predominant virus strain will be in months to come.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u0026#039;We are getting closer to our goal, but we must work together internationally to finish the job.\u0026#039;\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003ELine Matthiessen, acting director of health at the EU\u0026#039;s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Ramirez said that the consequent time gap between design and delivery was necessary given preparation techniques dating back to the 1950s. Even today, drug companies use millions of chicken eggs to grow the virus that will go into the vaccine, reaping the vaccine no faster than natural processes can produce it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018As they can only know for sure if the vaccine is on target once the flu outbreak starts, the prediction is sometimes wrong leading to a mismatch which results in poor efficacy,\u2019 Dr Ramirez said. \u2018By the time they find out, it is too late to start over.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the EU-funded FLUTCORE project, iQur has pioneered a more adaptable production process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStalk\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than aim the vaccine at the constantly changing head of a protein in the influenza virus, the company has created a so-called tandem core structure that is nimble enough to strike at its more stable stalk.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The tandem core is created by inserting conserved parts of influenza virus into spherical particles,\u2019 said Dr Ramirez. \u2018To piece them together, we modify the DNA of living yeast cells so that they synthesise the tandem cores like if they were a natural protein.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy farming the modified yeast, iQur can bring down the time it takes to produce a flu vaccine from months to weeks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Ramirez said that that FLUTCORE partners immunised mice with the new vaccine. The test subjects survived infection from a range of viruses, including the pandemic H1N1 strain responsible for the 2009 outbreak of swine flu. iQur is raising funds to soon test this versatility in its first clinical trials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe three EU-financed projects which presented at the meeting, EDUFLUVAC, FLUNIVAC and UniVax, are exploring other innovative methods to fight new strains of the virus, including training the immune system to spot features that past strains had in common.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe EU-funded UNISEC project has begun testing the effectiveness of two particularly advanced universal flu jabs on patients. They\u2019ve already moved on from small-scale trials and are doing mid-size, or Phase II, trials, as a precursor to large-scale tests. Results are expected this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/bit.ly\/newsalertsignup\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/horizon-magazine.eu\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/news-alert-final.jpg\u0022 width=\u0022983\u0022 height=\u0022222\u0022 \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn January, BiondVax, a start-up in Ness Ziona, Israel, published advances made by one of these two vaccines in the scientific journal \u003Cem\u003EVaccine\u003C\/em\u003E. The company inoculated trial participants in 2011, froze samples of their blood, and exposed them to a new flu strain several years later.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Their blood contained more protective antibodies against the new flu strain than those trial participants who received a placebo,\u2019 said \u003Cspan\u003EBiondVax\u0027s\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003EJoshua Phillipson. \u2018We essentially vaccinated people against a flu strain that did not exist at the time.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECash injection\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe European Investment Bank\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003Eannounced on 19 June that it would offer a EUR 20 million loan to the company to fund a large-scale trial and establish a manufacturing plant.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EBiondVax has now received the cash it needs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003EHowever, many of these vaccine developers struggle to find the millions of euros required to pay for big trials\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022\u003E.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If the EU wants to keep leading the way towards a universal flu vaccine, it needs to align funders for the last steps of development,\u2019 \u003Cspan\u003EDr Odile Leroy from the European Vaccine Initiative in Heidelberg, Germany, told the meeting\u003C\/span\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIf you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-whordvtaqsdll9vuowf4b1fcvs6sbllzyrek-cyypak\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-WHoRdvTAqSdll9VUOwF4b1Fcvs6SBllZyREk_CyYpak\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]