Scientists Develop Bird Flu Vaccines in Preparation for Possible Pandemic

Five years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts turn their focus to a new pandemic threat: H5N1, or bird flu. Currently, the virus is circulating among birds and dairy cattle, and does not spread from human-to-human. Efforts are underway to develop a vaccine against the virus, including an mRNA vaccine being developed at Penn Medicine by Scott Hensley, PhD, a professor of Microbiology, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research.