First came the human genome, or genomics, then came the study of proteins, called proteomics. Now scientists at the La Jolla Institute are hoping the term immunomix will become mainstream. Researchers have compiled the world's largest database on how the body's immune system responds to infectious disease, including viruses.
It's flu season ... Like death and taxes it can be added to the list of perennial things to come. But the La Jolla scientists are hoping to give researchers an edge when developing flu vaccines. They've compiled a databank that encompasses decades of research on influenza. Flu is a tough battle to fight, given the strain changes season to season. But the new study shows there may be a common target.
Alessandro Sette, Scientist: This study and other studies show, in reality it is not completely a moving target, that some parts are not moving that fast and so maybe one approach could be, to see if one could hit those parts of the target that are not moving that fast so it would have a broader applicability.
Scientists can now access online, everything known about how the body's immune system reacts to disease and toxins using this database. The project was funded by the National Insitutes of Health in response to concerns about emerging threats like avian flu and bioterrorism.
Stephen Wilson, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology: One hundred years ago a scholar could know the literature. The rate of information coming out someone could actually read and quickly undertsand and use that in their science. Today, with high thoughput technologies and just the shear size of the research more information comes than you possibly could understand simply by reading.
The databank became public last year and has had thousands of hits online. But with the publication of this study on influenza , researchers at the La Jolla Institute hope the databank will be even more widely used.
