Research News

Pictured above are vaccinated (left) and unvaccinated (right) airways challenged with avian influenza. The Ross lab's next-generation flu vaccine protected against infection and the airways remain open.

 Next-generation influenza vaccines from Cleveland Clinic's Florida Research and Innovation Center have now been shown to neutralize lethal levels of more than just seasonal flu in preclinical tests. The vaccines, described in recent Virology and mSphere publications, provide long-lasting protection against many flu strains and variants, including avian flu. These results further demonstrate the benefits of next-generation vaccine technology. 

Avian flu rarely infects humans directly, but outbreaks can decimate poultry and livestock, impacting food supplies and the economy. There are no specific treatments to reduce its spread or effects beyond culling affected farms.

Although a novel avian flu vaccine was introduced in June 2024, it was formulated based on the currently circulating viral strain, which might limit its effectiveness against future outbreaks or different types of influenza. Next-generation influenza vaccine technology developed in the laboratory of Ted M. Ross, PhD, is designed based on hundreds of influenza strains to protect against multiple forms of seasonal and animal-borne flus. 

Preclinical tests showed the Ross lab's universal vaccine provides long-lasting protection against many variants of the seasonal flu, swine flu, avian flu, other bird flus and other animal-borne influenzas. The team did not have access to the avian flu variant currently circulating among North American birds, cattle and (very rarely) people for testing, but Dr. Ross says the vaccine's success against closely related strains speaks highly to its potential.

Dr. Ross and his team are working on completing the testing needed to move forward with the vaccine public health purposes, either into human trials or into the livestock being affected by the virus. 

The more existing viral strains and variants a vaccine protects against, the more likely the vaccine is to protect against new and unknown viral variants in the future. Dr. Ross, who is Global Director of Vaccine Development at Cleveland Clinic, explains universal vaccine research allows public health officials to be proactive in protecting against outbreaks by eliminating the need to make strain-specific vaccines. 

"It is critical to develop new vaccines and therapeutics to address future infections and variants before they emerge," he says. "These products are necessary to protect people from hospitalization and transmission of deadly influenza viruses."