NEXT TALK: Next talk 31st of October, 7pm - Sesonal mood disorders
Cittie Of Yorke, 22 High Holborn, WC1V 6BN
Viruses - Enemies or friends?
2013/10/15
A Science Café Special as part of the Bloomsbury Festival
Venue: Marquis Cornwallis, 31 Marchmont Street
London, WC1N 1AP
Since the days of Edward Jenner, we have used harmless or disabled viruses as vaccines to protect against infection. Very recently there have been remarkable clinical uses of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV remains a global threat as a pathogen; one of the reasons that it is so hard to treat is that the virus persists for the patient’s lifetime. This feature has allowed scientists to engineer HIV to carry correct genes to patients with genetic defects. A small number of children with rare inherited neurological or immune diseases have now been treated using engineered HIV. How far can we go using viruses to cure diseases?
Mary Collins is a Professor of Immunology at University College London. Her research team engineer viruses for experimental and clinical gene delivery. Recently they have produced the first stable packaging for lentiviral vectors, and have investigated the use of lentiviral vectors as cancer vaccines.
