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SUMMARY:Marek's disease: an excellent natural model for herpesvirus evolut
 ion\, vaccines\, microRNAs and cancer - Professor Venugopal Nair\, Institu
 te for Animal Health\, Compton
DTSTART:20101013T113000Z
DTEND:20101013T123000Z
UID:TALK26159@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sue Griffin
DESCRIPTION:Despite the enormous success of the intensive livestock and po
 ultry farming in increasing the production of cheap animal proteins\, thre
 ats from several infectious diseases continue to challenge in the sustaina
 bility of animal production. Poultry industry is heavily dependent on the 
 widespread use of vaccines against multitude of viral diseases that challe
 nges poultry health and welfare. Continuous race between the pathogens and
  the host immune responses often necessitates the application of newer gen
 erations of more effective vaccines for successful control of many avian d
 iseases. \n\nMarek's disease (MD) is one of the highly contagious and econ
 omically important neoplastic diseases of poultry which is estimated to ca
 use economic losses up to £ 1billion worldwide. Despite the widespread an
 d successful use of vaccines for the last 40 years\, MD virus shows a cont
 inuous evolution of virulence. One of the aims of Dr. Nair's research is t
 o investigate the molecular mechanisms of for the continued increase in vi
 rulence. In collaboration\, with Prof. Andrew Read\, University of Edinbur
 gh\, Dr. Nair is examining the role of vaccines in driving MDV virulence.\
 n\nAs an excellent model for rapid-onset lymphomas\, MD also offers the pr
 ospect of examining the molecular events and mechanisms of virus-induced o
 ncogenesis in a natural disease model. With an aim to unravel the molecula
 r mechanisms of MDV-induced neoplastic transformation\, Dr. Nair group car
 ries out in-depth analysis of the transcriptome\, proteome and the interac
 tome of MDV-transformed cells to understand the molecular pathways of onco
 genesis.\n\nDr. Nair's group has established infectious bacterial artifici
 al chromosome (BAC) clones of different MDV strains\, which allow random o
 r targeted mutagenesis to identify genes associated with pathogenicity. Mo
 re recently\, Dr. Nair's group has identified several herpesvirus-encoded 
 microRNAs that have profound influence of the biology of these viruses.\n\
 n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre\, Department of Pathology\, Tennis Court Road
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