Emerging Viruses 2016

Welcome to the Emerging Viruses Symposium

The symposium will be co-hosted with the annual influenza conference – Influenza 2016 – and will focus on applied research on surveillance and control strategies for emerging viruses.

Oral and poster presentation opportunties are available in the following applied areas of virology and serology:-

o New serological/immunological assays
o Use of surrogate viruses e.g., VLP/Pseudotype viruses, for serology
o Correlates of protection
o Standardization of serological assays
o T cell and B cell assays
o Comparative serology
o Epidemiology and control
o Immunogenicity testing of novel vaccines and therapeutic antibodies

If you are interested in presenting at this symposium, please get in touch with us on ‘fluoxford@gmail.com‘.

We look forward to your participation in Emerging Viruses 2016.

Co-Chairs:

Dr Nigel Temperton, Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, UK
Dr Simon Scott, 
Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, UK
Dr Edward Wright,
 Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, UK


Speakers & Agenda


Session 1: Chair Dr Simon Scott

1030: Dr Janet Daly, University of Nottingham, UK
New twists on serological assays for emerging Bunya- and Flavi- viruses


1100: Dr Jason Long, Imperial College London, UK
Species difference in ANP32A underlies influenza A virus polymerase host restriction


1130: Dr Chinedu Ugwu, University of Cambridge, UK
Understanding the varying roles of Antigen presenting cells (APC) in emerging virus zoonoses


1150: Dr Alain Kohl, University of Glasgow, UK
Zika virus: properties and interactions with host cells


1220: Lunch, networking, posters


Session 2: Chair Dr Edward Wright

1300: Professor Jonathan Heeney, University of Cambridge, UK
Reservoirs and the evolution of Zoonotic Pathogens


1330: Professor Ian Goodfellow, University of Cambridge, UK
Provision of lab support during and after the 2013-16 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone


1400: Miss Pramila Rijal, University of Oxford, UK
Isolation and characterization of human monoclonal antibodies to Ebola Virus glycoprotein with an aim for therapeutic use


1420: Professor Sunetra Gupta, University of Oxford, UK
The role of epitopes of limited diversity in the antigenic evolution of influenza


1450: Dr Keith Grehan, University of Kent, UK
Viral Pseudotypes and In-silica analysis tools for studies of pathogen host switching


1510: Dr Ashley C Banyard, Animal and Plant Health Agency, UK
The challenge of emerging lyssaviruses


1540: Refreshments, networking, posters


Session 3: Chair Dr Nigel Temperton

1610: Professor Maria Zambon (Keynote), Public Health England, UK
Emerging viruses: The UK response


1640: Dr Lorraine McElhinney, Animal and Plant Health Agency, UK
Increased detection of hantaviruses in the UK


1710: Dr Mark Page, The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), UK
Responding to the need for reference standards in an outbreak situation


1740: Miss Emma Bentley, University of Westminster, UK
Exploiting pseudotypes for emerging virus research


1800: Close

If your abstract has been accepted for presentation but it does not appear in the list below, please let us know as soon as possible by email on FluOxford@gmail.com.

HozBox500x3

Establishment of reference material for serology of Zika virus infection

James Ashall, Giada Mattiuzzo, Mark Hassall, Sophie Myhill, Mark Page, Stacey Efstathiou

Department of Virology, National Institute of Biological Standards and Controls, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

Accurate diagnosis of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is essential not only to minimise further transmission but also to improve the understanding of viral epidemiology. ZIKV is usually associated with mild symptoms however during the ongoing outbreak in South America, the rise of Zika-associated cases of microcephaly and neurological disorders has prompted the WHO to declare an epidemic of international concern. Serological tests are used for testing patients for zika infection due to short viraemia in plasma; however they generally lack specificity and struggle to differentiate between the closely related Dengue virus. This highlights the needs for specific reagents to assure assay performance…


Establishing a WHO International Reference Reagent for Ebola virus antigen

Sophie H Myhill1, Giada Mattiuzzo, Mark Page, James Ashall, Dianna Wilkinson, Gillian Cooper, Kaetan Ladhani and Stacey Efstathiou

Department of Virology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Blanche Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, EN63QG, UK

NIBSC is developing an antigen Reference Reagent for Ebola virus (EBOV) to monitor the performance of diagnostic assays, as part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) response to the 2013-2016 EBOV outbreak in Western Africa and to provision for any further outbreaks. While the preferred Ebola diagnostic assays used during the outbreak have been PCR-based methods, these could take up to 5 days from collection of the sample, transport to special facilities and analysis. At the clinic, to give a fast diagnosis to patients suspected of having Ebola virus infection, point of care (POC) tests would allow a more rapid, although less sensitive and less specific, alternative.  To date, three POC antigen capture tests have approved for emergency deployment by the WHO, all based on the detection of EBOV viral protein 40 (VP40) as the target antigen…