Influenza is one of the most notorious viruses in the world today. More than simply a winter nuisance, this is a disease that has killed tens of millions in the course of worldwide pandemics, such as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic estimated to have caused roughly 50 million deaths worldwide. Influenza continues to have a major worldwide impact. It still carries a high mortality rate each year, particularly among the young and the elderly, and causes vast repercussions in economics, public health and society at large.

Influenza is particularly potent as it can be transmitted through both through contact with bodily fluids and through the air via aerosol (tiny particles that are carried through a gas). The ease of transmission is made more dangerous since a hallmark of influenza viruses is their ability to undergo genetic changes (mutations) that allow influenza to re-infect the same host. Worse still, these mutations can result in a novel virus to which the majority of the population lacks protective immunity and eventually can lead to new pandemic strains. Influenza is a vaccine preventable disease, however, the vaccine strains must be annually updated due to the continuous changes in the virus. Therefore, there is an urgency to develop new vaccine strategies that offer broad protection against seasonal, epidemic and pandemic influenza.

Alessandro Sette’s lab is researching ways to more efficiently fight infectious diseases like influenza. Taking advantage of the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB), another Sette project at LIAI, the lab is able to examine research from scientists around the globe that relate to these infectious diseases. The IEDB catalogs critical information from thousands of published research papers, collating data on how viruses interact with the immune system.

By examining data from the IEDB and combining it with real-life lab-based research, Sette’s group seeks to determine common threads that are conserved between different influenza strains and pose attractive targets for vaccine development and evaluations. Ultimately, the hope is to produce more effective vaccinations more quickly and to be able to combat influenza on a world-scale, rather than tackling it on a strain-by-strain basis. Disease is a global problem, and the Sette lab is among the first to seek a truly global solution to the problems presented by infectious diseases.