Health
Influenza research centers announced
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 23, 2007
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is providing $23 million per year for seven years to establish six Centers for Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance.
The centers will expand NIAID's influenza surveillance program internationally and in the United States and will bolster research in understanding how the virus causes disease and how the human immune system responds to infection with the virus.
The centers will be at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.; the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; Emory University in Atlanta; Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.
In related news, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee selected the influenza virus strains for the 2007-08 vaccine. The committee recommended that the A-Solomon Islands strain replace the A-New Caledonia strain and that the A-Wisconsin and B-Malaysia/2506 strains remain the same in the new formulation.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/04/23/hlbf0423.htm.
