VUMC will hold its ninth annual Flulapalooza mass influenza vaccination event on Wednesday, Sept. 25.‬‬‬‬

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.

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.

Vanderbilt investigators said their work shows that computational design can improve the ability of naturally occurring antibodies to recognize different flu strains and may hasten the development of more effective flu therapies and vaccines.

Even canines, chickens and sabre-tooth tigers need protection

Vanderbilt researchers, as part of the International Human Vaccines Project, are searching for the key to lasting protection against influenza by examining naturally protecting cells found in bone marrow.

Internationally known vaccine experts including Vanderbilt University’s James Crowe Jr., MD, will speak next month at a symposium in Nashville on prospects for a universal flu vaccine.