UW Medicine Gets Multi-Million Dollar Grant For Universal Flu Vaccine

A nurse prepares a flu shot from a vaccine vial. CREDIT: DAVID GOLDMAN
A nurse prepares a flu shot from a vaccine vial. CREDIT: DAVID GOLDMAN

Listen

BY BRIAN GREGORY, KUOW

The Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine has been awarded $11.3 million to work on a universal flu vaccine.

David Baker is the institute’s director. He said a universal flu vaccine would protect you from a broad range of flu strains.

“Right now there is a projection made before each flu season or maybe six months before each flu season about what strains of flu are likely to be coming through and then a vaccine is prepared specifically against those strains,” Baker said. “But those predictions can be wrong. So if you had a universal flu vaccine that protected you against all flu strains it would the guess work out of this equation.”

Baker also said there could be future benefits.

“If you had a vaccine that gave you really long lived protection, then it could be like the other types of vaccines, we get a polio vaccine once, other vaccines we get once, you wouldn’t have to get a new vaccine every year,” Baker said.

Baker said that whether a universal flu vaccine is developed or not, this gift will build techniques and technologies that will advance science and have a huge variety of implications in medicine and industry.

The grant from the San Francisco-based Open Philanthropy Project is one of its largest awards to date.

Copyright 2018 KUOW

 

Related Stories:

The outside of the nonprofit Blue Mountain Heart to Heart in Walla Walla. The organization serves people with chronic illnesses, including substance use disorder. (Credit: Blue Mountain Heart to Heart)

Medication first, and then a whole-health approach

A couple of blocks off U.S. Route 12 in Walla Walla, Blue Mountain Heart to Heart has been treating people with substance use disorder for over a decade. But, for years, the nonprofit was unable to quickly offer a proven treatment for opioid use disorder: medication-assisted treatment.
Staffers would have to arrange for patients to get an assessment with a trained substance use professional elsewhere to start the medication. Getting that assessment, and then, getting started on the medication, buprenorphine, used to take weeks.

Read More »