Influenza research at UW–Madison

Influenza is considered one of the most important viruses in the world because of its potential impact on human and animal health. In 2009, continuing a decades-long tradition of influenza research, UW-Madison opened the Institute for Research in Influenza (IRI) to foster the internationally recognized research of Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues and to build on a long history of influenza research at the university. Important flu research is conducted as well by other UW-Madison faculty researchers.

A researcher uses a micropipette to dispense a cell sample and analyze minute amounts of DNA in a science lab at the Influenza Research Institute at UW-Madison.

Basic flu research at Wisconsin and other research settings worldwide informs critical activities related to preventing or blunting flu pandemics or related human health issues. New knowledge of flu at the most fundamental level helps public health workers around the world identify emerging dangerous strains of influenza and underpins the development of vaccines and drugs to thwart flu. Notable influenza research findings from UW-Madison include:

In 2007, researchers at IRI reported the discovery of a strain of the flu virus that is resistant to the most common drug used to treat severe influenza, called Tamiflu.

An investigation of the 2009 outbreak of H1N1 (swine) flu, which sickened as many as 34 million Americans, revealed a new mechanism used by the flu virus to enter and commandeer human cells. The finding helped to explain that flu pandemic, and showed that this virus combined genes from four past outbreaks, including from the deadly global pandemic of 1918. On the practical level, the study may lead the way to methods for augmenting human defenses against H1N1.

In 2010, Kawaoka reported that when H5N1, a deadly avian flu that kills more than 50 percent of infected humans, accepts a gene from a more common, seasonal human flu it can become highly pathogenic. In nature, H5N1 seldom spreads from person to person.

These studies, performed in laboratory equipment and in animal models, show that influenza is an extremely adaptable and virulent virus. By exploring the details of viral change, this work provides scientists around the world with essential tools for recognizing and understanding future viruses.

Because existing vaccines for avian influenza are still being tested and are not yet commercially available, understanding how the avian influenza virus behaves and mutates is a critical foundation for designing effective vaccines and treatments, and for understanding how to control the spread of virus to uninfected populations. Such work also informs global flu surveillance activities, providing specific knowledge about viral changes that may foreshadow a pandemic or other public health concern related to influenza.