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SUMMARY:Biocompatible Virucidal Materials as Broad Spectrum Antivirals - D
 r Samuel Jones\,  Postdoctoral Researcher SuNMIL Lab\, EPFL - Ecole Polyte
 chnique Federale de Lausanne
DTSTART:20160722T133000Z
DTEND:20160722T143000Z
UID:TALK66832@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fiona Roby
DESCRIPTION:Viral infections kill millions of people every year. Antiviral
  drugs\, which block different steps in the viral life cycle\, are virus-s
 pecific and usually lose clinical effectiveness upon viral mutations. Argu
 ably\, the ideal drug irreversibly inhibits viral infectivity\, acting out
 side the host cells with minimal cytotoxicity\, i.e. a virucidal drug. The
 re are many virucidal molecules (from strong acids to surfactants) however
 \, none have the needed requirement of being non-toxic. In this talk I wil
 l overview the key differences between virustatic and virucidal antivirals
  and highlight the importance of a virucidal approach. I will show that by
  designing nanoparticles that\, through strongly binding to a viral ligand
 \, lead to local irreversible deformations of virus capsids that permanent
 ly inhibits viral infectivity. These nanoparticles target the viruses’ h
 ighly-conserved attachment ligands and are known to have minimal toxicity.
  Through the use of virucidal assays\, electron microscopy images\, and mo
 lecular dynamics simulations I will show that these particles display\, at
  nanomolar concentrations\, virucidal activity against different HPSG bind
 ing viruses (HSV\, HPV\, LentiV\, RSV\, Dengue). I will then go on to show
  how such an approach can be applied to other materials and molecules and 
 present our most recent findings with this new and exciting class of viruc
 idal antivirals
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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