Coronavirus and vaccine strategies
The present corona outbreak has highlighted that there is still much to learn in terms of pandemic prevention. How can we make efficient vaccines against a newly emerging virus, and what can be learned from previous experiences? We will also present some of the current knowledge about SARS-CoV-2, placed in a broader context of pandemic prevention.
- Gunnveig Grødeland; Research group leader, Department of Immunology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, UiO, and Oslo University Hospital
- Inger Sandlie; Professor, Department of Biosciences, UiO.
Gunnveig Grødeland
Gunnveig Grødeland earned her doctoral degree in 2013 in the field of immunology and vaccine development. She was Fulbright Scholar at The Scripps Research Institute i San Diego in 2017. Gunnveig's research at UiO is within immunology and in particular development of new vaccines for influenza.
Inger Sandlie
Inger Sandlie earned her doctoral degree from the University of Bergen in 1981. After a postdoctoral period at Johns Hopkins University, US, she was researcher at the Norwegian Radium Hospital and she became faculty member of Department of Biology, UiO, in 1988. She is now professor at the Department of Biosciences. Inger’s research interest is on structure and function of antibodies and T-cell receptors, the specific detection molecules of the adaptive immune system. The purpose of the work is to engineer soluble T-cell receptors and antibodies for use in therapy and as research reagents. Inger holds 16 patents (granted and pending) and is cofounder of the companies Vaccibody and Nextera.
Seminar video
Seminar video recording with permission from the speakers and those who participated in the discussion; - credits to the Science Library for help with video edit.
Seminar host: Rein Aasland, Head of Department
Research on Corona from China and the US
IBV invited to a Zoom Seminar 2 April on Coronavirus with George Fu Gao from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Ottar N. Bjørnstad from Pennsylvania State University. Rein Aasland, Head of Department of Biosciences, and Nils Chr. Stenseth, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, introduced the speakers.
- George Fu Gao, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Lecture title: COVID-19: China's Update and Sharing - Ottar Bjørnstad, Pennsylvania State University
Lecture title: Plausible transitions in age-structure of COVID19 cases from the ongoing virgin-epidemic towards probable seasonal endemism
Dr. George Fu Gao
Dr. George Fu Gao is the Director-General at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; a Professor in the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; President of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology; and President of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB). His research interests include enveloped viruses and molecular immunology. His group research is mainly focused on the enveloped virus entry and release, especially influenza virus interspecies transmission (host jump), structure-based drug-design, and structural immunology. He is also interested in virus ecology, especially the relationship between influenza virus and migratory birds or live poultry markets and the bat-derived virus ecology and molecular biology.
Dr. Ottar Bjørnstad
Dr. Ottar Bjørnstad is a Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Biology and J. Lloyd & Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair of Epidemiology at Pennsylvania State University.
He specializes on population dynamics of epidemiological and ecological outbreaks. His focal systems include human infections like measles, whooping cough, rubella and influenza; animal infections like rabies, hantavirus and distemper; and outbreaks of various insects of biomedical and agricultural concern.
Seminar video
Seminar video recording with permission from the speakers and those who participated in the discussion; - credits to the Science Library for help with video edit.
Seminar host: Rein Aasland, Head of Department