Informing models of Influenza antigenicity using structural biology

Influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Despite a long-standing awareness of 'flu' in the research community, leading to the availability of vaccines for almost 70 years, it still presents a very real concern for public health. This is largely due to the fact that influenza viruses undergo a process known as antigenic drift. This allows the virus to sidestep immune responses that have been formed in individuals who have been exposed to the virus in the past or who have been vaccinated against influenza, by acquiring mutations in the surface protein haemagglutinin. By using electron microscopy to solve the structure of many haemagglutinin molecules from diverse strains of influenza and leveraging protein structure data from previous studies, we plan to construct computer models of the changes in this key protein which allow it to evade immune responses. These models will help vaccine designers and public health officials to anticipate trends in the spread of different flu strains and prevent deaths from flu by designing more effective vaccines faster.