How to Use hemagglutinin in a Sentence

hemagglutinin

noun
  • Those harmful mutations make hemagglutinin less stable and thus less able to open up cells for invasion.
    Quanta Magazine, 17 July 2014
  • Your yearly flu vaccine targets hemagglutinin, one of the two types of proteins that cover the influenza virus.
    Debbie Ponchner, Scientific American, 3 June 2019
  • The other strains have differences in their hemagglutinin that keep urumin from attaching.
    Marissa Fessenden, Smithsonian, 19 Apr. 2017
  • Called the hemagglutinin, this protein is responsible for attaching to cells that line the windpipe and lungs.
    Paul A. Offit, Philly.com, 23 Jan. 2018
  • Scientists have been sequencing hemagglutinin genes from flu seasons for more than 40 years.
    Quanta Magazine, 17 July 2014
  • One strategy is to target a protein on the virus’s outer surface called hemagglutinin, which the bug uses to invade cells.
    Chelsea Leu, WIRED, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Palese’s lab is focusing on ways to stimulate the immune system to recognize the stem or stalk of the hemagglutinin protein.
    NBC News, 14 Feb. 2018
  • Plus, his team’s vaccine generates antibodies against the hemagglutinin stalk.
    NBC News, 14 Feb. 2018
  • Krammer used a novel assay to measure the hemagglutinin stalk antibodies.
    Debbie Ponchner, Scientific American, 3 June 2019
  • Many influenza viruses are identified by two classes of proteins that appear on their outer shells, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.
    Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Two groups working separately, for example, are focusing on hemagglutinin’s stem, or stalk, which, unlike the head, doesn’t change.
    The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2017
  • Antibodies to the hemagglutinin prevent the virus from binding to cells and, therefore, prevent infection.
    Paul A. Offit, Philly.com, 23 Jan. 2018
  • To gain access to a host’s cells, influenza uses its own viral glycoprotein, hemagglutinin (H).
    Quanta Magazine, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Current flu vaccines generate antibodies to the head of the hemagglutinin protein, which is highly variable.
    Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 5 Nov. 2018
  • This particular protein, called hemagglutinin, helps the viruses bind to cells in the human respiratory tract.
    Marissa Fessenden, Smithsonian, 19 Apr. 2017
  • The influenza vaccine teaches the body to produce antibodies against the head of the virus's surface protein, hemagglutinin (HA).
    Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, 20 Sep. 2017
  • And for influenza, even a couple of changes in hemagglutinin can be a concern, because most immune protection relies on recognizing the precise shape of this protein in order to fight it.
    New Atlas, 5 Jan. 2026
  • But hemagglutinin isn't just protein; the protein becomes partly covered in sugar molecules borrowed from the host cell (known as glycosylation), which act as a type of camouflage for the virus.
    New Atlas, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Researchers had to manually assess the sequences for differences, focusing on regions known to be important for transmission such as hemagglutinin, the protein that binds the virus to the host cell.
    Quanta Magazine, 29 Aug. 2013
  • Current flu vaccines induce the production of antibodies that recognize the hemagglutinin head and inhibit its ability to mediate viral entry into a cell.
    Debbie Ponchner, Scientific American, 3 June 2019
  • But there are at least 18 hemagglutinins — the surface protein that gives influenza A viruses their H number — and 11 neuraminidases, the N component.
    Helen Branswell, STAT, 27 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hemagglutinin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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