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Volume 4, Issue 6(Suppl) J Infect Dis Ther
ISSN: 2332-0877 JIDT, an open access journal Influenza 2016
September 12-13, 2016
Page 21
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
Influenza
September 12-13, 2016 Berlin, Germany
2nd International Conference on
Ian A Wilson, J Infect Dis Ther 2016, 4:6(Suppl)
Broad neutralization of influenza viruses and progress towards a universal vaccine and therapy
The major surface antigen, the hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus is the main target of neutralizing antibodies. However,
until recently, most antibodies were thought to be strain-specific and protect only against highly related strains within
the same subtype. However, in the past few years, many human antibodies have been isolated that are much broader and
neutralize across subtypes and groups of influenza A and B viruses through binding to functionally conserved sites. We have
determined structures of many broadly neutralizing antibodies with HAs and determined that their epitopes map to highly
conserved sites on the HA fusion domains (stem) and receptor binding sites (head). The identification and characterization of
the epitopes and mode of binding of these antibodies have elucidated recognition motifs and conserved sites of vulnerability
that provide exciting new opportunities for structure-assisted vaccine design as well as for design of therapeutics that afford
greater protection against influenza viruses.
Biography
Ian A Wilson has received his BSc in Biochemistry from Edinburgh University, DPhil in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford University and did Postdoctoral research
at Harvard University. He has been a Professor at The Scripps Research Institute since 1982 and is Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and Chair of the
Department Integrative Structural and Computational Biology. His laboratory focuses on recognition of microbial pathogens by the immune system and structure-
based design of vaccines and therapeutics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences and has a DSc degree from Oxford University and published over 665 papers.
Ian AWilson
The Scripps Research Institute, USA