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SUMMARY:Studying viruses to understand what makes pandemic viruses special
  and how innate immunity works - Prof Greg Towers\, Professor of Molecular
  Virology\, Centre for Immunobiology and Infection\, Queen Mary University
  of London
DTSTART:20260611T150000Z
DTEND:20260611T160000Z
UID:TALK245347@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Liat Churley
DESCRIPTION:This Cambridge Immunology Network Seminar will take place on *
 Thursday 11th June 2026*\, starting at *4:00pm*\, in the Ground Floor Lect
 ure Theatre\, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC)\n\n*Speaker*: Prof Gr
 eg Towers\, Professor of Molecular Virology\, Centre for Immunobiology and
  Infection\, Queen Mary University of London\n*Title*: Studying viruses to
  understand what makes pandemic viruses special and how innate immunity wo
 rks\n\n*Abstract*: Innate immune sensing allows us to detect infection and
  ideally respond in a way that leads to resolution without disease. Howeve
 r\, unfortunately for us\, viruses evolve to evade or counter these defenc
 es\, and in that case\, the inflammatory response to the ongoing infection
  drives viral disease. In fact\, can all human disease be associated with 
 mis-regulated immune responses with or without infection? Would disease ex
 ist if we hadn’t evolved immunity to protect us from infection? In order
  to consider how innate immunity works\, and how viruses engage with it\, 
 we infect cells and study host responses. We also compare host responses b
 etween\, for example\, pandemic viruses and their non-pandemic relatives\,
  with a view to understanding what makes pandemic viruses special. We have
  found that pandemic HIV does the best job of avoiding interferon inductio
 n by adapting its capsid to evade DNA sensing by cGAS and capsid sensing b
 y TRIM5. We found that SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern adapted to human inf
 ection by increasing expression of existing innate immune antagonists\, en
 hancing transmission simply by over-expression. We have also studied how e
 ndogenous virus-related transposable elements contribute to sterile inflam
 mation concluding that maybe we need to rethink how sensing works and reco
 nsider the nature of the stimulus for nucleic acid sensors and ask whether
  it is viral or host nucleic acids being sensed. I will also describe how 
 studying how bugs target immune defences can reveal a new way to drug vira
 l infection. \n\n*Host*: Professor Clare Bryant\, Department of Medicine\,
  University of Cambridge\nRefreshments will be available following the sem
 inar.
LOCATION: Lecture Theatre\, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre\, Cambridge Bi
 omedical Campus
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