BLOCKING THE VIRUS
In the further work, the team hopes to use the gene editing technology, known as CRISPR, to remove a section of the birds' DNA responsible for producing a protein called ANP32, on which all flu viruses depend to infect a host.
Lab tests of cells engineered to lack the gene showed they resist the flu virus - blocking its entry and halting its replication and spread.
The death toll in the last flu pandemic in 2009/10 - caused by the H1N1 strain and considered to be relatively mild - was around half a million people worldwide. The historic 1918 Spanish flu killed around 50 million people.
Wendy Barclay, professor and chair in influenza virology at Imperial who worked with McGrew, says the idea behind developing gene-edited flu-resistant chickens is to be able "to stop the next flu pandemic at its source".
And she said work so far was showing promise: "We have identified the smallest possible genetic change we can make to chickens that can help to stop the virus taking hold."
