Webinar: Understanding Infection and Immunity of SARS-CoV-2

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Overview

SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) is the causative agent of the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Alongside investigations into the virology of SARS-CoV-2, understanding the fundamental physiological and immunological processes underlying the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 is vital for the identification and rational design of effective therapies.

In this webinar, Lisa Ng will provide an overview of the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection. She will describe its interaction with the immune system and the subsequent contribution of dysfunctional immune responses to disease progression. These will provide important insights in designing useful diagnostics and therapies.

Lisa Ng

Presenter

Since starting her own research lab at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Lisa Ng is currently a Senior Principal Investigator. The research interest of her group focuses on the immune responses of arthrogenic arboviruses that are epidemic or highly endemic in the tropical region.

Her team made several key important findings to move the human immunology field forward in controlling chikungunya virus and Zika virus infections.

For her previous work and contributions to SARS, she was voted “Most Inspiring Woman” at the Great Women of Our Time Awards for Science and Technology in 2005. In recognition of her meritorious research and development efforts on Asia’s infectious diseases, she was conferred the highly prestigious ASEAN “International Young Scientist and Technologist Award” in 2008.

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Donna Farber. Live Webinar: Respiratory immunity and COVID-19

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Donna Farber: Respiratory immunity and COVID-19 

Donna Farber discusses the development of lung-localized immune responses and the role of tissue resident memory T cells in protective immunity to respiratory viruses, in mouse models of influenza infection and in human lungs,  including recent findings on the impact of age on human lung immunity.  These concepts will be discussed in the context of respiratory immunity in SARS-CoV2 infection and our studies identifying potential immune correlates of disease severity in COVID-19.
Donna Farber is the George H Humphreys, II Professor of Surgical Sciences (in Surgery) and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University. The webinar is moderated by Henry Mwandumba, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Malawi College of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW) in Blantyre, Malawi.

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COVID-19 in Australia: being prepared and understanding the role of cellular immune responses

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COVID-19 in Australia: being prepared and understanding the role of cellular immune responses

Date: May 27, 2020
Time: 10:00 (UTC+2)

Australia has managed to not just flatten but squash the curve of infections with COVID19 and relatively few people have died. This is as a result of extensive PCR testing starting in late January, informed leadership from our government and regular input to policy from our scientific community. In addition, the establishment of a research network focused on pandemic preparedness back in 2016 led to several pre-approved protocols for observational and international clinical trials that could be activated immediately following the first diagnosis of COVID 19 in Australia.

What role do cellular immune responses play in squashing the curve of COVID-19 infections? Sharon Lewin and Katherine Kedzierska will show how immunity to SARS-CoV2 has demonstrated the breadth of concomitant immune responses associated with recovery in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation. Their study indicates that robust multi-factorial immune responses can be elicited towards the newly-emerged SARS-CoV-2 and early adaptive immune responses might correlate with better clinical outcomes.

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Trained immunity and BCG vaccination: a tool against COVID19?

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Mihai Netea

Trained immunity and BCG vaccination: a tool against COVID19?

Date: May 18, 2020
Time: 15:00 (UTC+2)

What do we know about the adaptive characteristics of innate immune responses? Does BCG induce long-term changes in innate immune cells? What are the non-specific effects of BCG vaccination on other infections? Can the BCG-induced trained immunity be harnessed against COVID-19?

Presenter: Mihai Netea

Mihai Netea was born and studied medicine in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He completed his PhD at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on studies investigating the cytokine network in sepsis. After working as a post-doc at the University of Colorado, he returned to Nijmegen where he finished his clinical training as an infectious diseases specialist, and where he currently heads the division of Experimental Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Nijmegen University Nijmegen Medical Center. He is mainly interested in understanding the factors influencing variability of human immune responses, the biology of sepsis and immunoparalysis in bacterial and fungal infections, and the study of the memory traits of innate immunity. He is the recipient of the Spinoza Prize 2016 and an ERC Advanced grant in 2019, and member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Science (KNAW).

Moderator: Faith Osier

MiFaith is President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS), an Official #TOGETHERBAND Ambassador for the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being and a 2018 TED Fellow.  She has won multiple international prizes for her research in understanding the mechanisms of immunity against Plasmodium falciparum in man.  She aims to translate this knowledge into highly effective vaccines against malaria. She is Visiting Professor of Malaria Immunology in the Nuffield Dept of Medicine, Oxford University, and holds the prestigious Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander Humboldt Foundation as well as an EDCTP Senior Fellowship. In 2014, she won the Royal Society Pfizer Prize, UK. She holds major research grants from the Wellcome Trust and is an MRC/DfID African Research Leader.

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Andreas Radbruch: Adaptive Immunity in COVID-19

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Date: May 11, 2020
Time: 16:00 (UTC+2)

Adaptive Immunity: Memory, Protection and Immunopathology in COVID-19

What do we know about the adaptive immune reaction to Sars-CoV-2? Why do humans react so heterogeneously to Sars-CoV-2? Does the adaptive immune system provide protection and for how long? How can we challenge the system with a vaccine to establish longlasting, efficient immunity?

Watch the interview now and join the live webinar on Monday, May 11!

Presenter: Andreas Radbruch

As Scientific Director, Andreas Radbruch is in charge of the thematic orientation of the biomedical research at the DRFZ since Professor Andreas Radbruch is a biologist by training, having done his PhD at the Genetics Institute of Cologne University. He has been the Director of the German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin, a Leibniz institute, since 1996 and Professor of Rheumatology at the Charité Medical School of the Humboldt University of Berlin since 1998.
Andreas Radbruch is the President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS).

Moderator: Rita Carsetti

Rita Carsetti is the Head of the Diagnostic Immunology Unit and of the B cell pathophysiology Research Unit of the Bambino Gesù Children Hospital IRCCS in Rome. She has spent a large part of her scientific career in Germany, at the Max-Planck for Immunobiology in Freiburg. Thanks to the long experience in basic research combined with the clinical involvement, she has contributed to the understanding of important basic mechanisms of human B cell biology and function in health and disease. In the last years, she has been involved in several projects related to the development of the immune system in children and adults and the changes due to different types of immunodeficiency. She is also involved in increasing the knowledge and public awareness on vaccines and vaccination and collaborates with patient associations. She is a founding member of the European B cell network and is the chair of the PUB committee of the IUIS.

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Rachel Humphrey: What cancer immunologists are doing about COVID-19

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Date: May 4, 2020
Time: 16:00 (UTC+2)

What are physicians and scientists seeing in their COVID-19-infected patients and in their own personal scientific explorations? What are the ongoing hypotheses that drive the emerging clinical studies, and what can we say about the rapid evolution of medicine, in light of their ongoing work? Rachel Humphrey will give her insights!

The webinar will be moderated by Miriam Merad, Vice-President of the IUIS.

IUIS-Frontiers Webinar Series on COVID-19

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Giuseppe Ippolito: The Global Scientific Response to COVID-19

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Webinar on April 24

Giuseppe Ippolito: The Global Scientific Response to COVID-19

Date: April 24, 2020
Time: 18:00 (UTC+2)

IUIS-Frontiers Webinar Series on COVID-19

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Webinar COVID-19

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Webinar COVID-19: Respuesta inmune, aspectos clínicos y opciones terapéuticas.

Sesión conjunta SAI-SADI.

Disponible en:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uJ2jiSikI