Seasonal flu: Research tries to understand why vaccines are not as effective for some people

Will this year's flu shot protect you? The answer is hidden in your blood Flu shots save lives across the United States every year. These vaccines are good at protecting the population from severe influenza infections, but not every person gets the same level of protection. La Jolla Institute for Immunology Medical Xpress

"Some people have incredibly strong responses to annual flu vaccines, and some people don't respond at all," says Tal Einav, Ph.D., Bodman Family Assistant Professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and member of LJI's Center for Vaccine Innovation.

Einav and his colleagues have developed a machine learning model to analyze massive datasets from multiple flu vaccine studies. The researchers are using this tool to solve a big mystery in science: Can we predict who will be a weak vaccine responder or a strong vaccine responder?

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