Albany College gets $5.4 million NIH grant for universal flu vaccine

ALBANY, N.Y. The National Institutes of Health has awarded Albany College a $5.4 million grant to develop a vaccine that would protect against all forms of the flu.

Instead of activating antibodies, as other flu vaccines do, a universal vaccine would also activate white blood cells. It would also provoke an immune response in the lungs.

The research team at the Albany, N.Y., medical school is collaborating with British medical company PowerMed to develop a way of injecting the vaccine into the skin without a needle.