OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Structure-assisted Design of Universal Vaccines and Therapeutics against Influenza Virus
Influenza virus remains a constant threat to global health. The 1918 H1N1 pandemic caused around 50 million deaths worldwide and up to 30-50% mortality has been reported for recent emerging viruses, such as H5N1 and H7N9, in those hospitalized. Therefore, there is an urgent need to design a much more effective vaccine to protect against the multiple subtypes and types of influenza virus. Until relatively recently, it was thought that antibodies to influenza virus were strain-specific and could protect only against highly related strains within the same subtype. However, since 2008, many potent human antibodies have been isolated that target the hemagglutinin glycoprotein (HA) and are much broader in their neutralization of influenza virus. We have determined crystal structures of a number of these broadly neutralizing human antibodies (bnAbs) and have shown that they bind to the highly conserved functional sites on the HA: the stem (fusion domain) and the receptor binding site. We have also determined structures of small proteins, peptides and small molecules that also bind to functional sites on the HA. Thus, structural and functional characterization of these bnAbs with the HA have provided exciting new opportunities for design of novel vaccines and therapeutics that afford greater protection against influenza virus.
Date:
29 November 2017, 12:00
Venue:
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Headington OX3 7BN
Venue Details:
Meeting rooms A & B
Speaker:
Dr Ian Wilson (The Scripps Research Institute, USA)
Organiser:
Agata Krupa (Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
jones-pa@strubi.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Prof E. Yvonne Jones (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Strubi seminars
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Agata Krupa
