Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. Student Awarded Predoctoral Fellowship Grant to Develop Universal Flu Vaccine

ATLANTA — Phillip Grovenstein, a Ph.D. student in the Translational Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a two-year, $89,658 predoctoral fellowship grant to address the urgent need for a more effective universal influenza vaccine.

The grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be used to identify mechanisms of certain vaccine combinations that enhance immune responses and develop a broadly protective flu vaccine.

“Current seasonal flu vaccines offer limited and inconsistent protection due to frequent mutations in the virus,” Grovenstein said. “There’s a critical need for a more effective, broadly protective (universal) flu vaccine, especially as existing strategies targeting conserved viral regions have fallen short.

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