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SUMMARY:Physical theory of vaccine design for influenza and dengue fever -
  Professor Michael W Deem (Rice University\, USA)
DTSTART:20090616T133000Z
DTEND:20090616T143000Z
UID:TALK18755@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Mark Miller
DESCRIPTION:The immune system normally protects the human host against dea
 th by infection.I will introduce a physical theory of the evolutionary dyn
 amics that occurs in the antibody-mediated and T cell-mediated immune resp
 onses.  The theory will be used to provide a mechanism for original antige
 nic sin\, wherein an initial exposure to antigen can degrade the response 
 of the immune system upon subsequent exposure to related\, but different\,
  antigens.  A new order parameter to characterize antigenic distance will 
 be introduced from the theory.  This order parameter predicts effectivenes
 s of the influenza vaccine more reliably than do results from animal model
  studies currently used by world health authorities.  I will discuss how t
 his order parameter might be a valuable new tool for making vaccine-relate
 d public health policy decisions. Next\, I will briefly discuss dengue fev
 er.  Infection with\, or vaccination against\, one of the four serotypes o
 f dengue fever typically increases susceptibility to dengue hemorrhagic fe
 ver from one of the other three serotypes.  I will present a physical theo
 ry of this immunodominance\nand use this theory to quantify the predicted 
 mitigation of immunodominance in a novel formulation of the dengue\nvaccin
 e.
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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