Innate Immunity and Host Species Barriers

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Innate Immunity and Host Species BarrierProf Massimo Palmarini and Dr Sam Wilson, Lead Investigators, with Dr Robert Gifford as a co-investigator and in collaboration with Prof James Neil, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), University of GlasgowViral diseases are often in the news because of their ability to suddenly cause an 'outbreak' in human populations. Often this is due to the ability of a virus from animals to 'jump' into humans and start causing disease. Currently, we don't fully understand how viruses 'jump' from one species to another, which hinders our ability to predict which viruses could threaten people in the future.Humans and the animals we share our environment with have all been plagued by viral diseases (some of which are life-threatening) for millions of years. To resist infection, animals have evolved an arsenal of different antiviral defences and every animal has evolved a unique set of these defences. Importantly, these defences can sometimes stop a virus from 'jumping' into a new species.By mapping the antiviral defences in humans and selected domestic and wild animals (like bats and pigs) we will catalogue the diversity of these defences in humans and 'animal reservoirs' of viral diseases. We will use this information to measure the ability of each individual defence to inhibit viruses that threaten human populations. We hope to identify the specific genes that leave us vulnerable to or protect us from the viral diseases circulating in animal populations.