In an effort to advance vaccine research and strengthen pandemic preparedness, researchers in Montreal and Halifax are exposing healthy volunteers to influenza in a carefully-controlled study.
The McGill University Health Centre described the study — which began in June in Halifax and last week in Montreal — as a Canadian first. It aims to establish a research model that could accelerate the evaluation of future influenza vaccines.
Volunteers will be exposed to a precise dose of the virus and closely followed to determine “who becomes infected, how much virus they shed and how their immune systems respond,” the MUHC said in a press release.
Read More: MUHC researchers expose volunteers to influenza for vaccine research