Viral Visions: understanding human-virus dynamics

Whenever our cells make copies of their DNA to divide, there's a risk of damage to the genetic instructions. To protect our DNA, specialised repair proteins act to monitor for damage, safeguard the DNA template, and carry out repair. We are focusing on one of these important proteins, SLF1, exploring how it recognises specific signals to respond to specific types of damage.

There are a multitude of viruses that remain hidden inside us throughout our lives. Usually these cause little harm, but are a huge problem if our immune system become weakened. Advances in medicine means we have become better at suppressing our immune systems, particularly in organ transplantations, but this has the undesirable outcome of making it easier for these viruses to come out of hiding.

Oncolytic viruses (Ovs) are fast becoming an alternative yet safe anti-cancer therapy due to their ability to selectively target tumours, whilst reducing off target side effects, commonly seen with many chemotherapies. This presentation will explore the evolution of OVs, their translation from the laboratory bench into a clinical setting and the challenges they still face.