Viruses versus Antibodies
Event Details
- Type
- Monday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Paul Bieniasz, Ph.D., Purnell W. Choppin Professor and head, Laboratory of Retrovirology, The Rockefeller University; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Speaker bio(s)
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The power of vaccines to preserve human life reversed the catastrophic course of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Nevertheless, the continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrates the limitations of vaccine and infection induced immunity in preventing virus spread. Prior to the pandemic, it was generally thought that repeated reinfection by seasonal coronaviruses occurred as a consequence of waning immunity. However, studies in the Bieniasz-Hatziioannou Lab indicate that neutralizing antibody evasion by SARS-CoV-2 is likely responsible for repeated reinfection/ vaccine breakthrough. Such antigenic drift can outpace the broadening of neutralizing antibody capacity that results from their affinity maturation. One line of research in the laboratory aims to determine whether novel immunogens that might broaden the neutralizing antibody response, and alternative antibody-based strategies, can be used to prevent infection by future sarbecovirus threats.
Paul Bieniasz received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Bath in 1990 and his Ph.D. in virology from the University of London in 1996. This was followed by a postdoc at Duke University from 1996 to 1999. From 1999 to 2016 Bieniasz was a staff investigator at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. In 1999, he also became an assistant professor at Rockefeller. He was appointed associate professor in 2003 and professor in 2010. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2008.
Bieniasz has received many honors including the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievements in Virology, the Biochemical Society Award, and the KT Jeang Retrovirology Prize. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
MLS lectures are only open to the RU community and will be taking place in Carson Family Auditorium and virtually via Zoom. Virtual participants are required to log in with their RU Zoom account and use their RU email address and password for authentication. We recommend signing out of VPN prior to logging in to the lecture. Please do not share the link or post on social media. - Open to
- Campus Only