Your genes may hold key to how sick you get from the flu

With lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic in the rearview mirror and the avian flu a looming obstacle in the road ahead, researchers from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine are trying to understand why a flu virus kills some people but not others.
With the help of some high tech equipment, well-defined mouse models and lots of analytical know how, physiologists are beginning to hone in on the secret to this differential response. It’s probably in the genes – and the proteins they encode.