How the immune system responds to flu shots and flu infection
Official title: Immune phenotyping of responses to influenza virus vaccination and infection
Funded at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · NIH-11481644 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how adults' immune systems react after flu shots or when they catch the flu to find why some people get better protection than others.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project start | March 22, 2022 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $232,377 |
| NIH project number | 5U19AI168631-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11481644 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults aged 21 and older, including people with known strong or weak responses to past flu vaccines and those with active influenza infection, are the intended participants.
✕Less likely to help
Children under 21 would not be eligible and are unlikely to directly benefit from participating in this project.
What this research studies
You would be followed over multiple flu seasons with blood samples taken before and after vaccination to track how your immune cells change over time. The team will compare people known to have had strong vaccine responses with those who had weak responses to find host features linked to protection. They will also enroll people with active influenza infection to compare immune responses from infection versus vaccination. In the lab, researchers will use a human tonsil model to study how immune activation begins after exposure to the virus or vaccine.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help improve flu vaccines or identify who may need different vaccine strategies to be better protected.
How similar studies have gone: Previous immune-profiling studies have identified signatures linked to vaccine response, but applying these approaches across multiple seasons and directly comparing vaccination versus infection is less common.
Where this research is happening
-
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Garcia-Sastre, Adolfo — Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Study coordinator: Garcia-Sastre, Adolfo
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.