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News: influenza
A clue to how avian flu jumps to humans
29 September 2009
NIMR scientists have determined the X-ray structures of receptor complexes of the H2 hemagglutinin from the 1957 ‘Asian flu’ pandemic and compared them with similar complexes from the other two flu pandemics of the twentieth century. The article is published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.
Influenza outbreak has not followed expected patterns
16 July 2009
Alan Hay, Director of the World Influenza Centre at NIMR, has commented on the pattern of the influenza outbreak in Britain. His comments are reported in the Guardian newspaper.
NIMR scientists at heart of influenza sequencing
11 May 2009
Scientists at NIMR have been collaborating with scientists in Israel, Portugal and the UK in the past week to gain a better understanding of the genetic characteristics of the swine-like human influenza A(H1N1) viruses responsible for outbreaks in Europe.
NIMR scientists discuss swine-like human influenza A H1N1
02 May 2009
Dr Alan Hay, Director of the WHO World Collaborating Centre on Influenza at NIMR, and Dr John McCauley, from NIMR's Division of Virology, gave a press conference at NIMR on 1st May 2009.
A(H1N1) virus samples on their way to NIMR World Influenza Centre
28 April 2009
Virus isolates from American and Mexican patients are on their way to the National Institute for Medical Research for analysis.
Analysing swine flu
27 April 2009
NIMR scientists are preparing to receive samples of the H1N1 swine flu virus from the USA.
NIMR scientists join in global fight against swine flu
27 April 2009
NIMR scientists are preparing to receive samples of the swine influenza virus A(H1N1) from the USA.
Structure of influenza hemagglutinin complex
24 November 2008
NIMR scientists have determined the structure of an influenza hemagglutinin complex in complex with an inhibitor of membrane fusion and shown the nature of the binding site. The research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.
Bird flu pandemic would require multi-drug approach
14 May 2008
NIMR scientists have characterised a change in the N1 component of H5N1 which makes it resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. The mutation was found in human cases of the disease and suggests that a single drug approach is likely to be ineffective in case of a bird flu pandemic in humans. The findings are published online in Nature.
Scientists discover the travel patterns of seasonal flu
18 April 2008
Scientists have found that outbreaks of the most common type of influenza virus, A (H3N2), are seeded by viruses that originate in East and Southeast Asia and migrate around the world. This discovery, published in Science, may help to improve flu vaccines and make the evolution of the virus more predictable.
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