source: HUNDREDS of volunteers are needed to take part in a clinical trial to test a new groundbreaking flu vaccine.
Researchers at Southampton General Hospital need to recruit 300 people aged between 18 and 45-years-old.
It is hoped the new jab could protect people from all strains of the illness from seasonal flu to global pandemics such as the current swine flu crisis.
Volunteers will first have a blood test to see if they are immune to a particular strain of flu. Then 26 people who do not have this immunity will trial the new vaccine in the second part of the study.
The trial is being conducted by research staff and clinicians based at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF) at Southampton and the Jenner Institute at Oxford University.
Existing vaccines target only the outside of the flu virus, which frequently changes and varies in different strains of the virus, meaning new vaccines are needed each year.
Novel new T-cell vaccines target the internal core of the flu viruses, which do not change very much over time or between strains.
Dr Saul Faust, director of the WTCRF in Southampton said: “The current approach to tackling flu via the coat of the virus is not adequate because strains are constantly changing, new formulas have to be developed at short notice and then people are only protected for that particular strain.
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