cause brain tumors in these animals, and presents a model that could provide insights into polyomavirus associated oncogenesis in humans. Dr. Andreas Jeckle, principal scientist at Alios Biopharma, described his team’s research into novel inhibitors of human rhinovirus (HRV), the cause of the common cold, but also life-threatening acute exacerbations of respiratory conditions such as asthma. A promising lead, AL-036, was presented, which inhibits viral polymerase, and has shown promising efficacy in animal models against a broad spectrum of HRV types and other related viruses. Dr. Warner Greene, the director of the Gladstone Institutes, presented the groundbreaking research of his group into the mechanism of CD4 T cell death during HIV infection. Dr. Greene and colleagues have observed that most CD4 cells die not as a result of HIV infection itself, but rather from an innate immune response to the presence of HIV’s nucleic acids in the cell. This “suicide” process seems to create a vicious cycle, generating an inflammatory response and leading to further T cell death within the lymph nodes. These insight open potential new pathways into HIV drug discovery, namely those that target the host rather than the virus.
The symposium also featured competitively selected short talks from graduate students Mark Kunitomi of Raul Andino’s lab at UCSF, and Trever Greene from Laurent Coscoy’s lab at UC Berkeley, as well as post-docs Alexey Petrov and Desyree Jesus of Jody Puglisi’s lab at Stanford and Laura Hertel’s lab at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute, respectively. In addition, a lunchtime panel was held that focused on the 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Speakers included UCSF graduate Jana Broadhurst and Stanford physician Dana Clutter, both of whom served in Sierra Leone last year treating affected patients. Dr. Broadhurst shared her experiences with establishing specimen management and diagnostic tools, which proved critical in managing the epidemic and ultimately bringing it under control. She was joined by Dr. David Persing, the Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid, who described the efforts of his company to bring an Ebola diagnostic forward during the crisis. Art Reingold, a professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, provided perspective on the current state of the outbreak, the nature of the global response, and how things might be improved for the future.
The symposium served as a nucleating event for the Bay Area Virus Network, or Bayviro, a constellation of scientists, engineers, and clinician researchers in and around the San Francisco bay who are working on virology, host-pathogen interactions, and control of human an animal virus infections. The group’s website, Bayviro.org, serves as an online resource, forum, and platform for connecting investigators at universities, companies, and research institutes throughout the region.
