Vaccinia virus entry, exit and evasion

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Viruses remain a potent threat to human health as illustrated by the current epidemics caused by influenza virus and human immunodeficiency virus. Basic research on how viruses replicate, spread and evade our immunological defences is important in advancing our understanding of how viruses cause disease and will underpin the development of new vaccines and anti-viral drugs. This proposal concerns vaccinia virus (VACV), a poxvirus and the live vaccine that was used to eradicate smallpox. Although smallpox has been eradicated, VACV continues to be studied because i) it is possible to engineer VACV as a vaccine against other infectious diseases, and ii) the interaction between VACV and the host cell and immune system is providing novel, fundamental information about how viruses cause disease. This application will focus on how VACV enters cells, how new virus particles are transported out of the cell, how these virus particles spread rapidly to other cells, and how VACV evades the immune response to infection. The information obtained will facilitate the engineering of VACV as a safer and more immunogenic vaccine for infectious diseases and cancer.