Bird Flu Research at Rochester

Bird Flu Research Studies

Nation's First Vaccine Against Bird Flu Approved
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the approval of the first vaccine in the nation's history designed to prevent bird flu.

Bird-Flu Vaccine Works at High Doses; Focus Turns to Ways to Stretch Vaccine Supply
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
An experimental vaccine against bird flu is safe and spurs the immune response considered necessary to protect against the deadly illness, at a dose several times larger than the traditional flu shot and in slightly more than half of people who received the largest dose, scientists said in results to appear March 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

250 Here Sought for Tests of Bird Flu Vaccine
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Vaccine experts in Rochester are looking for 250 people willing to roll up their sleeves and take part in one of two research studies of an experimental bird flu vaccine. The work at the University of Rochester Medical Center is the next step in the effort to develop a vaccine that could be used to prevent bird flu, should the disease acquire the ability to spread from person to person.

Scientists Launch a Flock of Flu, Bird Flu Vaccine Studies
September 28, 2005
Flu shots that hurt less, an adequate supply of flu vaccine, and protection against bird flu – those are among the goals of several studies being carried out this fall by vaccine experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Rochester on the Front Lines to Prevent Bird Flu Pandemic
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
The Rochester area is again playing a key role in the world’s ongoing fight against infectious diseases. Doctors and nurses at the University of Rochester Medical Center are seeking to enroll 150 people for a study of a vaccine against the most virulent form of bird flu.

Rochester Tests Bird-Flu Vaccine in Humans
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Doctors are beginning one of the first tests in the United States of a vaccine designed to protect people against one form of bird flu should an outbreak of the virus occur in humans. While the vaccine under study is not designed to protect against the precise bird-flu virus causing the current outbreak in poultry and in people, scientists will learn whether it protects against another strain of the virus that infects birds and people.

Influenza Research

Rochester Leads National Study Aimed at Boosting Flu Vaccine Supply
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Doctors around the nation are launching a flu vaccine study this week in an effort to prevent another flu vaccine shortage like the one that put flu shots in scarce supply this year.

Rochester Initiates Testing of New Type of Flu Vaccine
Monday, October 25, 2004
Scientists are launching a research study to check the effectiveness of a new type of flu vaccine that is made differently than the conventional vaccine, which is grown in eggs. The experimental vaccine instead relies on a cell line drawn from insects known as fall armyworms, which are better known for their role as pests attacking crops such as corn, cotton, barley and alfalfa.

Leading Expert Offers Insight In New England Journal on this Year’s Severe Flu
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Why is this year’s flu packing such a wallop? And why is it taking such a harsh toll on young children? One reason is that the flu virus has changed, or mutated, slightly in the nine months since flu makers designed this year’s vaccine, and those changes may be rendering the vaccine less effective, according to flu expert John Treanor, M.D., director of the Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit at the University of Rochester.

Background on Dr. John Treanor and Vaccine Research Unit

Fighting the Bird Flu
Fall 2005
As he settles into his office at the Medical Center each morning, John Treanor ’79M (MD) visits the Google News Web site. There, he enters a term that has occupied his mind for much of the past few years: “bird flu.” For one of the nation’s leading experts when it comes to combating the viruses behind influenza, the ritual may seem a little unscientific. But the kind of news that the Rochester professor of medicine is looking for may take weeks to show up in the peer-reviewed studies or national health agency reports that he typically reads.

Small Band of Nurses Plays Key Role Keeping Germ Threats at Bay
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Flu. Smallpox. Anthrax. Whooping cough. The words represent a veritable murderers’ row of infectious agents whose death toll runs in the millions.Between them and us stand a few small groups of nurses at select institutions around the country, including the University of Rochester Medical Center, who protect the population from such scourges.

Successes of Rochester Researchers Help Bring About New Vaccine for Infants
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Repeated bouts of intestinal illnesses caused by the rotavirus in children up to about age 5 can now be prevented with a new vaccine universally recommended by a Center for Disease Control advisory panel Tuesday.

NIH Funding

NIH Funding Continues to Grow at URMC

Clinical Trials

Find Clinical Trials Being Conducted at URMC/Strong Health.