New influenza donor strains for the production of reassortant influenza B viruses are provided.

The present invention provides, among other things, a novel and improved method for generating mosaic influenza antigenic polypeptides including hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides based on unique combination of epitope patterns that maximize exposure to epitopes present across multiple HA or NA sequences and therefore improved influenza strain coverage. In particular, the present invention provides engineered H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides that are comprised of novel combinations of protective epitopes and antigenic regions from multiple H1N1 viral strains. Such engineered HA polypeptides have improved properties over HA polypeptides developed through conventional approaches that rely on consensus alignments of viral sequences.

Disclosed are compositions and methods for increasing virus production.

Compositions and methods to prepare influenza virus-like particles (VLPs) are provided.

The present invention relates to the microbial immunogens engineered to bear -gal epitope(s) for induction of potent humoral and cellular immune responses when administered to subjects having anti-Gal antibodies. In one embodiment, the present invention provides compositions and methods for propagating influenza virus in human, ape, Old World monkey or bird cells that have been engineered to express an 1,3galactosyltransferase ( 1,3GT) gene to produce virions bearing hemagglutinin molecules containing -gal epitopes, to increase the immunogenicity of the influenza virus. In another embodiment, the present invention provides fusion proteins between influenza virus hemagglutinin and a microbial peptide or protein of interest, and enzymatic processing of this fusion protein to carry -gal epitopes, to increase the immunogenicity of the microbial peptide or protein of interest.

New influenza donor strains for the production of reassortant influenza B viruses are provided.

The present invention provides, among other things, a novel and improved method for generating mosaic influenza antigenic polypeptides including hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides based on unique combination of epitope patterns that maximize exposure to epitopes present across multiple HA or NA sequences and therefore improved influenza strain coverage. In particular, the present invention provides engineered H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides that are comprised of novel combinations of protective epitopes and antigenic regions from multiple H1N1 viral strains. Such engineered HA polypeptides have improved properties over HA polypeptides developed through conventional approaches that rely on consensus alignments of viral sequences.

The present invention relates to the microbial immunogens engineered to bear -gal epitope(s) for induction of potent humoral and cellular immune responses when administered to subjects having anti-Gal antibodies. In one embodiment, the present invention provides compositions and methods for propagating influenza virus in human, ape, Old World monkey or bird cells that have been engineered to express an 1,3galactosyltransferase ( 1,3GT) gene to produce virions bearing hemagglutinin molecules containing -gal epitopes, to increase the immunogenicity of the influenza virus. In another embodiment, the present invention provides fusion proteins between influenza virus hemagglutinin and a microbial peptide or protein of interest, and enzymatic processing of this fusion protein to carry -gal epitopes, to increase the immunogenicity of the microbial peptide or protein of interest.

The present invention provides, among other things, a novel and improved method for generating mosaic influenza antigenic polypeptides including hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides based on unique combination of epitope patterns that maximize exposure to epitopes present across multiple HA or NA sequences and therefore improved influenza strain coverage. In particular, the present invention provides engineered H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides that are comprised of novel combinations of protective epitopes and antigenic regions from multiple H1N1 viral strains. Such engineered HA polypeptides have improved properties over HA polypeptides developed through conventional approaches that rely on consensus alignments of viral sequences.

The present invention relates to a novel MDCK-derived cell line capable of being suspension-cultured in a protein-free medium and a method for proliferating a virus using the MDCK-derived cell line to produce a vaccine. The novel MDCK-derived cell line exhibits high and uniform productivity for various viruses, while causing less viral antigenic variations with low tumorigenicity, and thus can be useful in producing viruses used for vaccines.