Immune System In A Bottle Could Help Prevent Flu Vaccine Shortage

Picture a honeycomb and each compartment in the honeycomb is coated with living cells from a person’s mouth, skin or a piece of bone. University of Michigan associate professor Nicholas Kotov believes that one day, the cells in those honeycombs can be used to grow spare parts for our bodies, or even an entire artificial immune system in a bottle. An immune system in a bottle would allow faster and easier production of a flu vaccine, thus preventing another shortage, he said. In addition, the immune system in a bottle will give scientists clues how to design vaccines that activate an immune response to the unchanging part of a flu virus, making yearly vaccinations, quite possibly, unnecessary, Kotov said.