World Influenza Congress Europe 2009

The World Influenza conference comprised numerous plenary sessions and some panel discussions. The highlights of the meeting were the novel approaches to vaccine developments, particularly the use of live-attenuated viruses and baculovirus- or bacteriophage-derived virus-like particles as delivery vectors. Improvements in antigenicity have been demonstrated by thoroughly understanding the biology of the influenza virus; in particular, understanding which residues within the hemagglutinin protein correspond with plaque morphology in cell culture. At least two different bioinformatic approaches were discussed for the rationale design of peptide vaccines; these are naturally at a very early stage but data look promising. We were reminded by several presenters that although we were in the midst of a pandemic caused by the H1N1 swine-derived influenza strain, avian influenza strains were still circulating, and some were predicting more widespread infection with these strains in the future.