CVR External Seminar
Dr Robert Gallo, University of Maryland, 26 October 2011, 4.00 pm, Graham Kerr Lecture Theatre 1, Graham Kerr Building
Seminar Title: “A Journey with Viruses and Blood Cells”
Dr Robert (Bob) Gallo will visit the University of Glasgow on 26th October. Since 1996, Dr Robert C Gallo has been Director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University Of Maryland School of Medicine. Previously (for 30 years) he was at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD. While at NCI, he and his co-workers discovered interleukin-2 (Il-2) in 1976. Il-2 was one of the first cytokines (“messenger” molecules that allow cells to communicate and alter one another’s function) and proved to be a major tool not only for immunology but also for the discovery of all human retroviruses. Gallo and his colleagues then opened and pioneered the field of human retrovirology with the discovery of the first human retrovirus (HTLV-1) and along with Japanese investigators showed it was a cause of a particular form of human leukaemia. A year later he and his group discovered the second known human retrovirus (HTLV- 2). Dr. Gallo and his colleagues also independently discovered HIV, and provided the first results to show that HIV was the cause of AIDS. They also developed the life saving HIV blood test. In 1986 he and his co-workers discovered human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6), the first new herpes virus found in more than 25 years and the cause of Roseola. In 1995 he and his colleagues discovered the first endogenous inhibitors of HIV, namely some of the beta chemokines. This discovery helped in the later discovery of the HIV co-receptor, CCR5, and opened up entire new approaches to treatment of HIV disease.
Dr. Gallo has been awarded 29 honorary doctorates, is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of numerous scientific honours and awards. Dr. Gallo was the most cited scientist in the world 1980-1990, according to the Institute for Scientific Information, and he was ranked third in the world for scientific impact for the period 1983-2002. He has published close to 1,300 papers.
Pupils get hands-on with the CVR
For the past six years staff at Glasgow Science Centre, working in partnership with scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), have been delivering a series of practical workshops on DNA technology to Advanced Higher Biology pupils. Hundreds of pupils continue to attend from across Scotland and enjoy the opportunity to learn modern molecular biology techniques as part of a hands-on workshop at Glasgow Science Centre.
Read the full article in the Nexxus Scotland, Autumn 2011 newsletter.
10,000 Hepatitis C patients could hold the key to better treatment
The Medical Research Foundation, an independent registered charity established by the MRC, has donated nearly £2 million to establish a clinical database of 10,000 patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). This will enable a UK-wide network of researchers to find new ways to tackle the deadly infection,1 February 2011 more...
Glasgow's Centre for Virus Research receives £4.8 million
The Medical Research Council - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research has been awarded £4.8million from the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today, Thursday 1 July more...
The Sir Michael Stoker CVR Award Lecture at the MRC - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
On Wednesday 1st June, the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) hosted the inaugural Sir Michael Stoker CVR Award Lecture. This award is named in honour of Sir Michael Stoker, CBE MD FRCP FRS, who was Professor of Virology at the University of Glasgow from 1958 to 1968 and Honorary Director of the MRC Virology Unit. This was the first Chair of Virology to be established at any British university. Sir Michael's tenure in Glasgow was a hugely productive time with more than 200 papers published from the Unit. Among his many achievements during his time in Glasgow, Michael Stoker, and his colleague Ian Macpherson, isolated the first cell line transformable into a tumour cell (BHK21). The isolation of BHK21 cells led to many exciting discoveries concerning the fundamental properties of transformed cells, such as loss of anchorage dependence and contact inhibition. The BHK21 cell line was also of great practical value, becoming the substrate of choice for the production of the foot and mouth disease virus vaccine at Pirbright. Stoker left Glasgow to become Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London, and was subsequently President of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968, a CBE in 1974 and was knighted in 1980. Sir Michael now lives in Cambridge and will soon celebrate his 94th birthday.
The Sir Michael Stoker CVR Award Lecture is an annual competition organised entirely by the CVR’s postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers who vote for an outstanding scientist whom they consider has made a major contribution to virology. We were delighted to welcome Professor Michael Malim, FRS, King's College London, as the first recipient of this award. Professor Malim spent the day meeting with postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students of the CVR before accepting the Stoker Award and delivering a most informative and insightful lecture entitled: 'Exploiting replication deficiencies to illuminate HIV:host interactions’.
We were also very pleased to be joined on the day by Sir Michael’s son, Chris Stoker, who spoke of his father’s appreciation at having this award named in his honour, his enthusiasm for the way in which the award is made and the exemplary leadership shown by the CVR’s younger researchers.
Isabelle Dietrich wins the ABCD & Merial Young Scientist Award 2011
The ABCD and Merial Young Scientist Award 2011 was presented to Isabelle Dietrich MRes, a PhD student at the Center for Virus Research of the University of Glasgow (UK), on 25 June in Vienna, on the occasion of the congress of the International Society of Feline Medicine.
Isabelle Dietrich (28) received the award for her work on a potential gene therapy for cats infected with the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), based on restriction of the virus with a synthetic feline TRIM5-CypA fusion protein. “In our study, we confirmed that such a protein was highly efficient at preventing FIV infection in vitro”. A TRIM-Cyp-based gene therapy approach for FIV-infected cats “would offer an effective antiviral defense strategy with a very low potential for toxicity and the emergence of resistant viral variants, and would contribute significantly to animal welfare”, she explained.
The award was presented by Professor Marian C. Horzinek, Founding chairman of the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD), who congratulated the laureate. “Isabelle Dietrich has contributed to the knowledge of feline infectious diseases by a series of studies of high quality and originality. Her research into the intracellular defense mechanism offers a novel insight into the potential control of an often devastating disease”. Isabelle had been selected “with flying colours” from a pool of “very good candidates”, he added.
Isabelle’s work was also “of major importance” in the field of human viral diseases like AIDS, recalled Jean-Christophe Thibault, Merial’s Technical Director for Biologicals (Europe, Middle East and Africa), “As a leading animal health company, Merial is very proud to be associated to this prestigious European award, in association with a recognised expert group such as the ABCD.” He also thanked the organisers of the ISFM congress, which was “the most appropriate venue for presenting this award”, created to “highlight key research in the field of feline medicine”.
The ABCD and Merial Young Scientist Award, created in 2008, is funded by Merial and is presented to a young scientist in veterinary or biomedical sciences, who has made an original contribution in the field of feline infectious diseases and/or immunology. Applicants should have published their findings in a journal listed in PubMed or Web of Science or have had them accepted by another recognised assessing body.
Candidates should be based in Europe, have completed a veterinary or biomedical curriculum, and be under 35 years of age at the time of application. Applications in the fields of both basic and applied sciences are welcome.
For further information, please contact Karin de Lange, ABCD secretary, karin.delange@abcd-vets.org