Influenza virus is one of the most common pathogens that is associated with viral pneumonia in children and adults. Seasonal influenza infections represent an ongoing global threat with the potential ermergence of pandemic strains with high mortality rates. While the development of effective vaccines are the ideal solution to this, therapeutic options to treat influenza infection are limited, and new treatments for this virus are urgently required. Host defence peptides, also known as antimicrobial peptides, are important molecules that form part of the innate immune response to infection. We and others have shown that they possess powerful antiviral and immunomodulatory activity, and they are able to alter host cell responses to viral infection. As such, they represent an exciting opportunity for therapeutic development in the context of modulating the host cell response to influenza infection. This project will investigate the potential for synthetic therapeutic derivatives of naturally occurring host defence peptides to be used as therapeutics against influenza virus infection.