Influenza 2014

Welcome to Influenza 2014

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The Oxford influenza conferences provide a relaxed, friendly and intellectually-stimulating discussion forum to veterinary and human influenza researchers, attracting world leaders in influenza research and junior scientists from academia, industry and government organisation.

Influenza 2014 will address most aspects of basic and applied research on zoonotic and human influenza viruses. The conference invites proposals for oral and poster presentation in the following general areas of influenza research:-

o Molecular virology and immunology
o Antiviral drug development and treatment strategies, including vaccination
o Host-pathogen interaction – virulence and pathogenecity
o Epidemiology and evolution
o Mathematical models
o National and international surveillance and contingency strategies
o Advances in viral detection and identification technologies

Influenza 2014 Keynote Speakers

 

 

 

 

We are delighted to announce a pre-conference symposium on serology and sero-surveillance, Respiratory Viruses 2014, which is to be held on 08 September at St Hilda’s College.

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Speakers and agenda

Director of Reference Microbiology at the Public Health England, UK
Clinical and public health challenges of influenza

15.20: Dr Roger Thomas

Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
When physicians diagnose “Influenza-like illness” what pathogens are found if the patient is tested?

15.40: Refreshment Break and Posters

Immunology and Vaccinology (Human)

16.10: Professor Alain Townsend

Professor of Molecular Immunology, Investigative Medicine Division, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, UK
Original Antigenic Sin promotes Antigenic Drift

16.40: Dr Rob Lockhart

MS&T – Virology, AstraZeneca Global Operations, UK
Generation and production of a live attenuated influenza vaccine

17.00: Dr Benjamin Cowling

Associate Professor and Head, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Incidence of influenza virus infections in children in Hong Kong in a three year randomised placebo-controlled vaccine study, 2009-12

17.15: Dr Kerstin Beer

MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Division of Virology, London NW7 1AA, UK
Diversity of neutralising epitopes of currently circulating influenza A (H3N2) viruses

Epidemiology and Surveillance (Human)

17.30: Dr Karen L Laurie

WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, Melbourne, Australia
Improving Standardisation and Timeliness of Seroepidemiological Studies through the Global Partnership CONSISE (the Consortium for the Standardization of Influenza Seroepidemiology)

17.45: Dr Steven Riley

Reader in the Ecology and Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK
Incidence and severity of infection with seasonal influenza A H3N2 compared with pandemic H1N1 : a longitudinal serological cohort study

18.00: Professor Amita Jain

Virology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, King George Medical University, India
Observation of genetic changes in Influenza A/H3N2 and A/ H1N1 pdm09 viruses circulating during 2011 to 2013 in Northern India (Lucknow)

18.15: Close of Day 1

Modelling and Public Health

8.30: Professor John Oxford

Blizard Institute, Queen Mary College, London & Director, Oxford Media and Medicine, UK
A deadly synergy, the Great War and the Great Pandemic

9.00: Professor Neil Ferguson

Professor of Mathematical Biology & Head of Department, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London,UK
How predictable is the antigenic evolution of human influenza A?

9.30: Professor Emanuele Montomoli

Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine,  Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Siena, Italy
Title awaited

10.00: Professor Anthony Nash

Professor Emeritus, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK
Influenza and Parkinson’s Disease

10.15: Refreshment Break and Posters

10.50: Professor Robert Webster, Keynote Address

Rose Marie Thomas Chair, Member, St Jude Faculty, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA
The continued threat of H5N1, H7N9 and H9N2 influenza viruses

Molecular Genetics, Virus Assembly and Replication

11.30: Professor Paul Digard

Profesor of Virology, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, UK
Molecular virology of influenza virus assembly and replication

12.00: Dr Kenneth Baillie

Group Leader, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, UK
Title awaited

12.30: Dr Vânia Gaio

Department of Epidemiology, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Portugal
Genetic variation at the IFITM3 and Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection severity in the Portuguese population

12.45: Dr Adeline Kerviel

CPBS UMR 5236 CNRS, Montpellier, France
Deciphering the role of the M1 matrix protein basic residues in influenza virus A/H1N1 assembly

13.00: Group Photo in the JdP Lawn

13.05: Lunch and Networking

Virology, Epidemiology and Surveillance (Zoonotic)

14.25: Dr Sharon Brookes

Animal Health and Veterinary Labaotories Agency (AHVLA), UK
Title awaited

14.45: Professor Daniel Perez, Keynote Address

Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis, University of Maryland, USA
Malleable Influenza Viruses

15.25: Dr Thierry van den Berg

Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Center, CODA-CERVA, Belgium
Vector vaccines and immunity against avian influenza

15.55: Dr Munir Iqbal

Head of Avian Influenza Group,  Avian Viral Diseases Programme, The Pirbright Institute, UK
Development of aptamer-based rapid diagnostics for influenza viruses

16.10: Refreshment Break and Posters

16.45: Dr Marek Slomka

Scientist & Project Manager, Animal Health and Veterinary Labaotories Agency (AHVLA), Surrey, UK
Infection and exposure of chickens with a European H9N2 low pathogenicity avian influenza virus (LPAIV) elicits delayed onset of clinical signs and death following subsequent challenge with a clade 2.3.2 H5N1 highly-pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV)

Host-Pathogen Interaction (human)

17.00: Dr Juliet Bryant

Oxford University Clinical Research Unit and Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, Hanoi, Vietnam; and Center for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Making sense of market surveillance data for H5N1 from Vietnam:  Research needs and next steps

17.15: Dr Lauren Parker

Divisions of Virology and Physical Biochemistry, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, NW7 1AA, UK
Biophysical characterisation of recent Influenza A (H3N2) virus receptor binding

Host-Pathogen Interaction and Virulence (Zoonotic)

17.30: Dr Sayed Abd El-Whab

Avian Influenza Research Group, Institute of Molecular Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Germany
Multibasic proteolytic cleavage site and mutations in the HA2 protein are essential for full virulence and transmissibility of H7N1 virus in chickens

17.45: Dr Jutta Veits

Avian Influenza Research Group, Institute of Molecular Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Germany
Cryptic virulence potential in H5 and H7 field strains of avian influenza virus

18.00: Close of Day 2

19.00: Dinner (By prior booking or invitation only)

Animal Models, Methods, Assays

Chair: Dr Simon Scott

9.00: Mr Donald Benton

Divisions of Virology and Physical Biochemistry, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, UK
Direct Measurement of Influenza A Haemagglutinin and Neuraminidase Balance

9.15: Dr Jonathan Bundy

Research Chemist, Toxins and Flu Lab, Clinical Chemistry Branch, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta GA, USA
Determination of the conformation of hemagglutinin in influenza vaccine preparations using size exclusion chromatography and mass spectrometry

9.35: Dr Carrie Pierce

National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta GA, USA
Isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) and immunocapture isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IC-IDMS) in response to pandemic influenza

9.55: Dr Nigel Temperton

Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences, Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, UK
Production of Influenza B haemagglutinin lentiviral pseudotype particles and their use in neutralization assays

10.15: Refreshment Break and Posters

Chair: Dr Nigel Temperton

10.50: Dr Anthony Marriott

Project Team Leader, Influenza Group, Public Health England, UK
Aerosol and intra-nasal challenge with 2009 pandemic influenza virus (H1N1) in cynomolgus macaques

11.10: Dr Simon Scott

Lecturer in Molecular Biology, Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, UK
The use of pseudotyped viruses for investigation of neutralising antibody responses in mammals

11.30: Miss Kristina Fobian

National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Assessment of zoonotic potential of four European swine influenza viruses in the ferret model

11.45: Dr Ruth Bouwstra

Central Veterinary Institute, Wageningen University and Research Centre (CVI-Lelystad), The Netherlands
Subtyping avian influenza antibody positive sera from the Dutch poultry monitoring programme using a protein microarray

12.00: Miss Khrisdiana Putri

Asia Pacific Centre for Animal Health (APCAH) Werribee, Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
HA2 subunit epitope of Indonesian avian influenza H5N1 as DIVA reagent 

12.15: Lunch and Close

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Posters

(Presenters in Bold)

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.

Insect cell surface expression of hemagglutinin (HA) of Egyptian H5N1 avian influenza virus under transcriptional control of whispovirus immediate early-1 promoter

Gadalla MR, El-Deeb AH, Emara MM and Hussein HA

Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza –Egypt, 12211

Identification of Swine Influenza Virus epitopes in pigs using bioinformatics predictions and tetramers technologies

Massimiliano Baratelli¹⁺, Lasse Eggers Pedersen²⁺, Lars Erik Larsen², Esther Blanco Lavilla³, Jens Nielsen^{2, 4}, Gregers Jungersen², Bryan Charleston⁵, Maria Montoya^{1, 6}

¹ Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

² Technical University of Denmark, National Veterinary Institute (DTU VET), DK-1870 Frederiksberg C and DK-4771 Kalvehave, Denmark

³ Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal, INIA, Valdeolmos 28130 Madrid, Spain

⁴ Statens Serum Institut, 5 Artillerivej, DK-2300 Copenhagen, Denmark

⁵ The Pirbright Institute, Surrey GU24 0NF, United Kingdom

⁶ Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Barcelona, Spain

+ Both authors equally contributed to the work

Development and evaluation of H7N9 live-attenuated influenza vaccine

Zhongying Chen¹, Janine Lu¹,  Mariana Baz², Qi Xu¹ , Kanta Subbarao², Yumiko Matsuoka², Hong Jin¹

¹MedImmune/Astrazeneca, Mountain View, CA, USA

 ²Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

A Systematic Investigation in to the Effects of Potential Compensatory Mutations on the Fitness of 2009 Pandemic H1N1

Anne J Daly and Kim L Roberts

Department of Microbiology, Moyne Institute of Preventive Medicine, School of Genetics and Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

Identification of antiviral drug (Oselatamivir) resistant influenza virus strains circulating during 2011-2013 in India (Northern Region)

Tanushree Dangi¹, Amita Jain^1*, Bhawana Jain¹, Ajay Kumar Singh¹, Mukesh Dwivedi¹, Anil Kumar Verma¹, J V Singh², Rashmi Kumar³

1. Virology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, King George Medical University, Lucknow (India)

2. Department of Community Medicine, King George Medical University, Lucknow (India)

3. Department of paediatrics, King George Medical University, Lucknow- (India)

Stochastic modeling of pandemic influenza in Canada: evaluating the adequacy of hospital surge capacity

Patrick Saunders-Hastings^1,2

¹University of Ottawa, ²Risk Sciences International, Canada

A novel sequence-based approach for rapid subtyping of avian influenza viruses directly from swab and environmental samples

Joyce E Jones¹, Zoltan Kis^1,2, Nancy A Gerloff¹, Natosha L Simpson¹, Amanda L. Balish¹, Adrian Creanga¹, C Todd Davis¹

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Influenza Division, Atlanta, GA, USA

²National Center for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary

Alteration of virulence of influenza A viruses during host switching: An investigation of virion morphology, variant genetic analysis and growth kinetics

Michael D Kelly, Brandon Z Londt, Bethany J Nash, Sharon M Brookes

AHVLA, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, KT15 3NB

Genotypic variation of contemporaneous influenza viruses circulating within European swine

Simon Watson¹, Pinky Langat¹, Scott Reid², Stephanie Franz¹, Michael D Kelly², Tommy Tsan-Yuk Lam³, Oliver Pybus³, Paul Kellam¹, Ian Brown²

¹Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK

²Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency-Weybridge, Surrey, UK

³Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK

The Analysis of Co-infections with A/H1N1 Strain Variants Among Pigs in Poland by Multitemperature Single-Strand Conformational Polymorphism (MSSCP) Technique

Krzysztof Lepek¹, Beata Pajak^2,4, Lukasz Rabalski¹, Kinga Urbaniak³, Krzysztof Kucharczyk², Iwona Markowska-Daniel³, Boguslaw Szewczyk¹

¹Department of Molecular Virology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology,
University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

²BioVectis Ltd, Warsaw, Poland

³Department of Swine Diseases , The National Veterinary Research Institute, Pulawy, Poland

⁴Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Warsaw, Poland

The role of hemagglutinin stalk specific CD4+ T cell immune responses in influenza A virus infection

I-Na Lu, Sophie Farinelle, Chantal Snoeck, Claude P Muller

Laboratory of Immunology, Centre de Recherche Public de la Santé (CRP-Santé), Luxembourg

A non-replicating H7 pseudotyped influenza virus vaccine (S-FLU) provides broad protection against group 1 and 2 influenza A strains

Timothy J Powell, May Haewon Byun & Alain RM Townsend

Molecular Immunology Group, MRC Human Immunology Unit, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DS, UK

Swine influenza H1N2 virus surveillance since the 2009 introduction of pandemic H1N1 virus into the UK pig population

Anita Puranik¹, Christine Russell¹, Wendy Howard¹,Nicola S Lewis² , Jayne Cooper¹, Eric Agyeman-Dua¹, Steve Essen¹, Katy Beck¹ , Sharon M Brookes¹, Ian H Brown¹

¹Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency-Weybridge, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 3NB, UK

²Centre for Pathogen Evolution, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

Human Monoclonal antibodies from convalescent H7N9 patients in China and Taiwan

Pramila Rijal¹, Arthur K Huang², Lisa Schimanski¹, Timothy Powell¹, Bei Bei Wang³, Xingwang Li³, Tao Dong¹, Alain RM Townsend¹

1MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford

2 Department of Paediatrics, Chang Gung Children’s Hospital, Taiwan

3 Capital Medical University, Beijing Ditan Hospital, China

Detection of non-notifiable H4N6 avian influenza virus from a broiler breeder premises in central England

Vanessa Ceeraz¹, Daniel Parker², Scott M. Reid¹, Christine Russell¹, Amanda Hanna¹, James Seekings¹, Wendy Howard¹,Sharon M Brookes¹, Richard M. Irvine¹_, Ian H Brown¹

¹Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency-Weybridge, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 3NB, UK

²Slate Hall Veterinary Practice Ltd, Unit 7 Highgate Farm, Over Road, Willingham, Cambridge, CB24 5EU, UK

Kinetics of viral spread and histopathological changes in ducks experimentally infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus strain A/duck/Zagazig/amn13/2011 (H5N1)

Mohamed Samir^1,3,4, Ashraf Hamed Hussein⁴, Fatma Ahmed Abdulla⁴, Ahmed Abd El-Samie Hassan Ali⁴, Frank Pessler^1,2

¹TWINCORE, Center For Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, Hannover, Germany

²Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany

³University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany

⁴Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

A recombinant single-chain variable fragment antibody against hemagglutinin from avian influenza virus H5N1 – cloning, expression and characterization

Róża Sawicka¹, Anna Góra-Sochacka¹,Violetta Sączyńska², Anna Porębska², Agnieszka Sirko^1*

¹Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics Polish Academy of Sciences, Pawińskiego 5A, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland

²Institute of Biotechnology and Antibiotics, Department of Bioengineering, Starościnska 5, 02-516 Warsaw, Poland

Novel inhibitors of the drug-resistant M2 proton channel from pandemic swine influenza

Claire Scott¹, Toshana Foster¹, Jayakanth Kankanala², Wendy Barclay³, Richard Foster², Stephen Griffin¹

¹Leeds Institute of Cancer & Pathology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

²School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

³Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK

Diversity and codon usage along the NS gene products of influenza A virus

Edgar Enrique Sevilla-Reyes, Luis H. Gutiérrez-González, Teresa Santos-Mendoza

Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosío Villegas, Calz. de Tlalpan 4502. Sección XVI. México DF 14080. MEXICO

The Pathogenicity of H5N8 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus in Chickens, South Korea, 2014

 Byung-Min Song, Hyun-Mi Kang, Eun-Kyoung Lee, Jipseol Jeong, Hee-Soo Lee, Youn-Jeong Lee

Avian Disease Division, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (QIA), 175 Anyang-ro, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 430-757, Republic of Korea

Discordant correlation between serological assays observed when measuring heterosubtypic responses against avian influenza H5 and H7 viruses in unexposed individuals

Eleonora Molesti¹, Francesca Ferrara¹, Giulia Lapini², Emanuele Montomoli² and Nigel Temperton¹

¹Viral Pseudotype Unit, School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB

²Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 3, 53100 Siena, Italy

What mortality from influenza in those ≥65 is estimated from large databases?

Roger E Thomas

Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1

Live poultry market closures to reduce influenza A(H7N9) human infections in China in winter 2013-14

Peng Wu¹, Hui Jiang², Joseph T. Wu¹, Enfu Chen³, Jianfeng He⁴, Hang Zhou², Lan Wei¹, Juan Yang², Bingyi Yang¹, Ying Qin², Vicky J. Fang¹, Ming Li², Tim K. Tsang¹, Jiandong Zheng², Eric H. Y. Lau¹, Yu Cao², Chengliang Chai³, Haojie Zhong⁴, Zhongjie Li², Gabriel M. Leung¹, Luzhao Feng², George F. Gao^5,6, Benjamin J. Cowling*¹, Hongjie Yu²

¹School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.

²Division of Infectious Disease, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.

³Zhejiang Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.

⁴Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.

⁵CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

⁶Office of Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, China.

Deficiency of IL-6 impairs lung repair after influenza virus infection

Mei-Lin Yang³, Chao-Liang Wu^1,2, Ai-Li Shiau^1,3

Institute of Basic Medical Sciences,¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,² and Department of Microbiology and Immunology,³ National Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan