Dr. Zhihong Hu
Professor
Wuhan Institute of Virology
Chinese Academy of Sciences
“Bunyaviruses: Epidemiology and Functional Study”
Time: 16:00, April 1 (Monday)
Place: Medical Science Building B321
Host: Dr. Gong Cheng
Abstract: The family Bunyaviridae of segmented, negative-stranded RNA viruses contains over 350 isolates classified in five genera including Orthobunyavirus,Hantavirus, Nairovirus, Phlebovirus and Tospovirus. This talk will focus on two bunyaviruses which are epidemic in China. Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a member of the genus Nairovirus, is a causative agent of severe hemorrhagic fever in humans with a mortality of 10-50%. It is wildly distributed in the world, ranging from Africa to Europe and Middle East to China. In China, the first case of CCHF was reported in Bachu county of Xinjiang in 1965, and since then, there have been several outbreaks in that area. The epidemiology and phylogeny analyses of CCHFV will be presented. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), a member of the genus Phlebovirus, is a newly reported pathogen identified in the region of Huaiyangshan, China. It causes severe fever, thrombocytopenia, and leukocytopenia in humans with a mortality rate of about 10%. The functional study of the NSs gene of SFTSV as a type I IFN antagonist will be shown in this presentation.
Light Refreshments will be served!!!
Background
The Centre for Infectious Diseases Research is holding a weekly seminar series. The seminars will be a great opportunity to hear speakers from both within and outside China speaking on a variety of subjects of interest to all those engaged in microbiology/immunology and allied disciplines. The coordinator of the seminar series is Babak Javid, and he would be delighted for fellow faculty to get in touch with regards to possible speakers to invite.
The seminars will also be of great interest to graduate students in life sciences, so we would appreciate PIs encouraging their students and post-docs to attend. By way of encouragement, we will be providing light refreshments to attendees.
If you are interested in meeting with the speaker, please email Babak Javid atbjavid@gmail.com.
We hope that this seminar series will prove to be a valuable addition for both training and scientific dialogue at Tsinghua, and look forward to seeing you there.
