"The Re-emerging Zoonotic Viruses: Characteristics of recent H5N1 viruses "

ABSTRACT

Upon the various pandemics (influenza and Coronavirus pandemic), Viral diseases have become one of the most imperative research fields.  Recently, rapid and astonishing progresses have been made in the fields of new diagnostic, mRNA vaccine technology, and novel antiviral drug development, but still many zoonotic diseases are threatening human life. In particular, the risk of a pandemic caused by various zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza viruses, coronaviruses, and Disease-X clearly shows the importance of the one-health concept. Today, I would like to get an overview of the current state of zoonotic infectious diseases, the most recent results, and advances in the field. In particular, I would like to talk about the neurotropic HPAI H5N1 virus infection and their specific pathogenic mechanisms, which has recently become a worldwide problem. Given the stark phenotypic differences observed between North American and Eurasian H5N1 strains in mammalian infection models, this study sought to identify molecular features within these reassorted segments that contribute to enhanced pathogenicity. Through the single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), we found novel mechanism for systemic dissemination, immune cell infection, and neurotropism of the recent North American H5N1 strain. Through comparative genetic analysis and reverse genetics, we further identified and validated key molecular determinants underlying these phenotypes, specifically highlighting the roles of PB2 and NP mutations in promoting immune cell-mediated systemic dissemination and neuroinvasion.

* 본 강의는 우리말로 진행됩니다. (This talk will be given Korean)

* This seminar will be held both offline and online via Zoom: (https://kaist.zoom.us/j/88244379581)