UMass Chan professor granted $460K to develop universal flu vaccine

Photo | Timothy Doyle UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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By Isabel Tehan

A UMass Chan Medical School pathology professor received $460,000 in grant funding to improve the flu vaccine for older adults, in order to provide longer-lasting immunity.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provided the two-year grant to Susan Swain’s research to provide a blueprint for a vaccine that responds to new strains of the virus, according to an announcement the Worcester school posted to its website Jan. 11.

The focus for the vaccine improvements are for the benefit of older adults, whose immune systems weaken as they age. Research will involve studying the unique B cells of older mice.

“I’ve tried to figure out how to make the best possible T and B cell memory (part of the adaptive immune response) for most of my career,” Swain said in the announcement from UMass Chan. “It’s really very striking that there are a lot of changes that occur with aging. They make it harder for an immune response to anything new to get started. It’s actually a restructuring of the system to avoid unnecessary responses.”

Swain, who holds a PhD in immunology from Harvard University in Cambridge, said a new universal vaccine would work on all ages to provide a longer-lasting immune response.

“The vaccines we do have don’t look like pathogens at all,” she said. “If you just have antigens and you don’t have all the other characteristics of a pathogen, you get a smaller response and only short-lived protection.”

Current flu vaccines reduce the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60%, according to the Centers for Disease Control.