Medgear

The researchers at Michigan State animal science labs have revealed a technology that could help in developing new human flu vaccines that would be more promising and cheaper than the current ones.



Paul Coussens, MSU professor of animal science and microbiology and molecular genetics, and his colleagues found a cell line having intriguing potential for growing flu virus during a study on the Marek’s disease, a common chicken disease that causes big losses for poultry producers. HepaLife Technologies Inc., a biotechnology company based in Vancouver, has licensed the technology from MSU and plans to produce cell culture-based flu vaccine.



Paul Caussens, also the director of the MSU Center for Animal Functional Genomics. said:

The recent highly virulent avian flu cases in Asia and fears about a pandemic have highlighted the problems with traditional influenza vaccine production methods, particularly the length of time to produce a new vaccine and the amount of vaccine that can be produced on short notice.



By growing cell culture-based flu virus, the cost and the time needed to produce the vaccine will be much lower. We’ll also be able to produce much more vaccine in a smaller space. And the virus that is grown is more pure. People with allergies to eggs are likely to benefit the most because they’ll be able to have flu shots without the threat of allergic complications.