UW-Madison announced Tuesday the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a research team at the university a $1.3 million grant for influenza virus vaccine research.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine professor and influenza researcher, will head the team conducting the research. UW-Madison will work in partnership with Lentigen Corp., a biotechnology company that works with vaccines and medical technology.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Lentigen Corp. agreed, as a part of the grant, any information discovered as a result of the grant-funded research would be made available freely to the research community.

“A major part of WARF’s mission here is to support the University of Wisconsin and to help ensure that its technologies basically are allowed to get out into the world where it can improve the human condition,” WARF Communications Director Janet Kelly said. The purpose of Kawaoka’s research is to determine when the avian influenza virus jumps from birds to humans.