PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

A School of Biochemistry seminar, hosted by Ian Collinson

Viruses depend on host cell machinery to express and replicate their genes. Viral RNA must therefore be delivered or generated in the cytosol. Some viruses also deliver genomic DNA into the nucleus, where it can be integrated into the host cell genome. The cell’s principal innate antiviral defense is an inflammatory response that is activated upon sensing cytosolic viral RNA. An additional defense mechanism is the transcriptional silencing of integrated viral DNA. Our overarching goal is to gain a mechanistic understanding at the molecular level of how the cell detects cytosolic viral RNA and how it silences viral gene expression. In pursuit of this goal we are applying a complementary set of biophysical, biochemical and cell biological approaches, with a focus on using high-resolution structural information to obtain detailed mechanistic insights with atomic-level detail. This will help establish basic principles of how viruses and cells coexist in health and disease.