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IRC SEMINAR “Bcl-2 proteins encoded by vaccinia virus: a family of

multifunctional immunomodulators”

Geoff Smith, MD

University of Cambridge, UK

When: 28th September 2015 – 5 p.m. Where: Vienna Competence Center,

Seminar room, 1st floor, Lazarettgasse 19, 1090 Vienna

Host: Tim Skern

 

cluster.meduniwien.ac.at/irc  

Biosketch Geoffrey L. Smith is Professor of Pathology and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He obtained his PhD (1981) for work with influenza virus at NIMR, London. Then as a postdoc in the laboratory of Bernard Moss at NIH, USA (1981-84), together with Michael Mackett, he developed vaccinia virus (the smallpox vaccine) as an expression vector and established the use of genetically engineered viruses as live vaccines. He continued working with poxviruses after returning to UK at Cambridge (1985-9), Oxford (1989-2000), Imperial College London (2000-11) and now as Head of the Department of Pathology in Cambridge. His research studies the interactions of poxviruses with the host cell and immune system. He has several roles promoting microbiology and advising on science policy, e.g. he is Chairman of the WHO Advisory Committee for Variola Virus (smallpox) Research and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board, Friedrich-Loeffler Institute 2015-19 (German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture). He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2002), the Institute of Biology (2002), the Royal Society (2003), a Founding Member of the European Academy of Microbiology (2008) and a member of Leopoldina. In 2005 he was awarded the Feldberg Foundation Prize in Medical and Biological Science and in 2012 the GlaxoSmithKline / American Society for Microbiology International Member of the Year Award. Selected publications • Doceul, V. et al, (2010). Repulsion of superinfecting virions: a mechanism for rapid virus spread. Science, 327, 873-7. • Mansur, D.S. et al., (2013). Poxvirus targeting of β-TrCP by molecular mimicry: a mechanism to inhibit NF-kB activation and promote immune evasion and virulence. PLoS Pathogens 9, e1003183. • Mazzon, M. et al.,(2013). A mechanism for the induction of a hypoxic response by vaccinia virus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 110, 12444-9. • Strnadova P et al., (2015). Inhibition of Translation Initiation by Protein 169: A Vaccinia Virus Strategy to Suppress Innate and Adaptive Immunity and Alter Virus Virulence. PLoS Pathog. 11(9):e1005151