New research suggests that the flu’s secret formula for effectively evolving within and between species appears to be a balancing act—producing enough mutations to spread and adapt to its environment but not so many that they lead to its demise.

“This research presents an attractive strategy for tackling the flu—making the influenza virus kill itself by amplifying the number of mutations made beyond the desired level, which is lethal for the virus,” says Baek Kim, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester and lead study author…

“(The) team has developed some very important new methodology for studying the function of the flu polymerase that could easily result in the development of new antivirals or other methods to control influenza,” says John Treanor, chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at Rochester.

Full story at Futurity.