MECHANISMS OF SEVERE ACUTE INFLUENZA CONSORTIUM (MOSAIC) Principal Investigator: Professor Peter Openshaw, Imperial College London -2.7 million

Internationally renowned teams of scientists from England and Scotland will mount an intensive study of up to 500 people hospitalised with flu during the pandemic. The consortium will examine which host (i.e. patient) and viral factors contribute to the severity of the disease and why people with underlying health problems - as well as some previously healthy people - sometimes develop severe disease. Understanding why some people get very sick with flu will help improve clinical management and future policies for vaccination and antiviral drug use. MOSAIC builds on the UK's Clinical Research Networks and is linked to the Department of Health's clinical information network (FluCIN). Such a large-scale cooperative project has never before been attempted for pandemic influenza.

MOSAIC is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the MRC.

COMBATING SWINE INFLUENZA (COSI) INITIATIVE -1.7million

Epidemiological and evolutionary investigations of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in pigs and associated occupational risks Principal Investigator: Professor James Wood, University of Cambridge

Transmission, infection dynamics, and immunopathology of pandemic H1N1 virus in pigs and comparability to human infection

Principal Investigator: Professor Ian Brown, Veterinary Laboratories Agency Weybridge

The COSI projects are intended to develop a vital understanding of how the virus behaves in the pig population and how interaction with farm workers may help it evolve and spread. This will help to develop strategies to slow or prevent the spread of the virus in both pig herds and the human population.

Professor Wood will monitor the spread and evolution of influenza in naturally-infected UK pig herds and workers to accurately model transmission and help inform intervention strategies. Professor Brown will study the immunology of pigs and perform in vivo studies that will provide data on virus transmission and evolution that will inform models on transmission on risk. The scientists hope the research will inform whether there is a need for a vaccine for pigs to slow the spread of the virus in animals and also help design a model that could inform intervention strategies in humans. There will be additional benefits for animal welfare.

Source: Wellcome Trust