Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

I am doing a project on influenza viruses and how effective the vaccines are. For the influenza vaccines sequences I have to go on the ISD website. Unfortunately the website has been updated to only the 2007-08 vaccines. I would like to know if the past vaccines of other years are still available.

Thank you, Please write back as soon as possible.

The USDA has a site that gives the strains recommended for each year's vaccine, back to the 1999-2000 season, here: http://www.fda.gov/cber/flu/flu.htm . You will then have to look up the exact sequences of those strains on a flu sequence database.

But where can I find the influenza sequence database on the http://www.fda.gov/cber/flu/flu.htm website?

Thank you!

Sorry, when I said 'a flu sequence database' I was referring to a different site. There are several that can be found with a quick google search; one I found that I liked was: http://www.biohealthbase.org/GSearch/st ... =Influenza . In order to search for sequences you will need to go to the 'sequence' search under 'Database search' (top left-hand corner of the page).