Flu

Biography

Biography: Pamuk Bilsel

Abstract

The low efficacy of current vaccines, highlighted by this year’s flu season where the vaccine barely worked, underscores the need for vaccines that provide broader protection. Current vaccines (live or inactivated) do not adequately provide protection. A vaccine with greater efficacy that also provides heterosubtypic protection, i.e., a universal vaccine, would present a transformative achievement for public health. However, a core challenge to development of improved flu vaccines lies in the animal models and surrogate tests available to predict efficacy in humans. There is no guidance on what the correlates of protection would be for any flu vaccine that induces an immune response other than a hemagglutinating antibody. The current understanding of the immune parameters needed to protect against influenza will be explored.