Princeton University Invention #
09-2507
Researchers in
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular Biology, Princeton University,
have developed biophysically grounded conceptual approaches, which take into
account antibody interference, to design influenza vaccines and anti-influenza
virus therapies that may afford better protection against infection.
Additionally, the Princeton researchers have developed quantitative
approaches to improving the selection of suitable vaccine strains to be used in
the development of flu vaccines.
Influenza
viruses cause regular epidemics and occasional pandemics that have substantial
economic and public health costs. The World Health Organization¿s global
influenza surveillance program is responsible for predicting the identities of
future epidemic and pandemic influenza viruses in order to enable the timely
development of effective influenza vaccines. However, this program has failed on
many occasions, resulting in elevated morbidity and mortality, especially among
the elderly. Such failures could also have devastating economic and health
consequences in the event of an influenza pandemic. There is, therefore, a great
need for ways to improve the prediction of future epidemic and pandemic
influenza viruses and to design effective vaccines against these
viruses.
While the
success of influenza vaccination depends crucially on the accurate
interpretation of data collected for this purpose, consideration of antibody
interference may allow for the development of more effective vaccines without
the need for any improvement in surveillance. Moreover, antibody
interference and its implications for vaccine design may also be relevant to
other viruses and pathogens, including HIV.
In summary, the
above approaches developed at Princeton may allow for improved influenza vaccine
design in addition to improved selection of strains to be used for more
effective vaccines.
Princeton is
currently seeking commercial partners for the further development and
commercialization of this opportunity. Patent protection is
pending.
References:
Wilfred Ndifon, Ned S Wingreen , Simon
A Levin, Differential neutralization Efficiency of Hemagglutinin epitopes,
antibody interference, and the design of influenza vaccines, PNAS, May
26th, 2009, Vol 106,No. 21, pgs 8701-8706.
Wilfred Ndifon, Jonathan Dushoff,
Simon A Levin, On the use of hemagglutination-inhibition for influenza
surveillance: Surveillance data are predictive of influenza vaccine
effectiveness, Vaccine, 27(2009)2447-2452.
For more information on Princeton
University invention # 09-2507 please contact:
Laurie Tzodikov
Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property
Princeton University
4 New South Building
Princeton, NJ 08544-0036
(609) 258-7256
(609) 258-1159 fax
tzodikov@princeton.edu