Vaccines

VUMC scientists are redoubling their efforts to help people fight off bird flu. Their focus is H7N9, one of the most dangerous of the influenza viruses that have been transmitted from birds to humans.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is leading a multicenter national study to evaluate the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine for preventing the flu’s most serious side effects — admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), organ failure and death.

James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, will be honored today by the science and technology company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for his contributions to developing new therapeutics and vaccines against some of the world’s deadliest viruses.

VUMC has joined an international effort to streamline and accelerate development of vaccines and other treatments against a growing worldwide surge of deadly and debilitating viral infections.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Scripps Research Institute have discovered a “hidden target” on the surface of the hypervariable influenza A virus that could lead to better ways to prevent and treat the flu.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are participating in a national effort to develop vaccines and other treatments as countermeasures to prevent the spread of two emerging and deadly viruses — Nipah and Hendra.

Ninety-eight percent of Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees have received a flu vaccine in each of the past three years, according to data collected by the Vanderbilt Occupational Health Clinic, which oversees the employee flu vaccine program.