In the wake of the latest outbreak of H1N1, the race is on to come up with a vaccine to keep more people from getting infected. NY1's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

If you wind up getting a shot to protect you from the H1N1 flu this fall or winter, it's quite possible that it got its start at the lab at New York Medical College.

Microbiologists at the facility, which is located about 40 minutes north of the city in Valhalla, have created a sample virus officials that the Centers for Disease Control say could be used against H1N1.

"When it is injected into someone, inactivated, the person who is the vaccinee will generate antibodies that will protect against that wild type virus that is circulating out there," said Dr. Doris Bucher of New York Medical College.

Bucher's lab already has a strong track record of helping to produce effective flu vaccines. For the past five years, it has come up with elements used in vaccines to protect against regular seasonal flu. Now the researchers think they may have done the same for H1N1.

They start by developing what's known as a "candidate virus", one that's similar to the bug they're trying to stop but that can stimulate your system to create antibodies to fight the infection. In this case, the scientists combined an actual sample of the new strain with more common, seasonal flu. Then the mixture was injected into eggs where flu virus can grow.

It took Bucher and her lab just under a month to grow the sample virus. At least two other labs around the world are also working on vaccine virus candidates.

Manufacturers will use the viruses to develop a vaccine that Bucher says could begin testing by mid to late June. And by fall, she says, we could be lining up not just for a regular flu shot, but also for one to protect against H1N1.

"In my own opinion, I would think that there is going to be manufacturing of a vaccine," said Bucher. "They are doing final testing on the annual vaccine. So I would hope then, if people can move quickly enough with the H1N1 people would go and get their flu shot. It might be one shot in one arm and one shot in the other arm."

Bucher says she believes whatever vaccine is developed for H1N1 will stick, because at this point there are still no signs of the virus changing.