Speakers
Keynote lecture
Prevention and control of hepatitis C virus: Lessons learned from studies in in vivo and in vitro model systems.
DrJens Bukh
Jens Bukh received his Medical Degree from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark in 1989. From 1990-2005 he was a Visiting Scientist in Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA. In 2006, he joined Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was appointed Professor of Human Virology, and Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Research Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark, where he hold positions as Chief Research Physician and Research Director. He has recently established Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP).
Jens Bukh’s research has focused primarily on the molecular virology of hepatitis C virus (HCV). These studies included analysis of the genetic heterogeneity of HCV, including the initial characterization of the various genotypes, and the development of new experimental systems for HCV, initially an in vivo reverse genetics system and more recently cell culture based systems. Finally, he has performed a number of studies on the natural history of HCV, using available in vivo models, in studies that have helped define correlates of protective immunity.
Session 1: Pestvirus properties
Molecular biology of pestiviruses - an update
Dr Paul Becher
Paul Becher received his undergraduate training at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, and subsequently moved on to do his PhD work at the former Federal Research Center for Viral Diseases of Animals in Tübingen, Germany (today Friedrich Loeffler Institute). He became Dr.Vet.Med in 1994 and continued with postdoctoral work on the replication and cytopathogenicity of border disease virus, also at the Federal Research Center. In 1995, he moved his work to the Institute of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Justus-Liebig-University (JLU) Giessen, Germany, where he still hold a position as Senior Scientist. After accomplishing his habilitation in 2003, he has also become a Certified Specialist for Veterinary Microbiology and in December 2007, he was appointed Heisenberg-Professor.
Paul's interest in pestiviruses has been directed towards the genetic heterogeneity and molecular epidemiology of pestiviruses, development of vaccines against pestivirus-induced diseases, replication and cytopathogenicity of pestiviruses as well as identification and functional analysis of cellular insertions in the genomes of bovine viral diarrhea virus and border disease virus. He has also investigated RNA recombination of pestiviruses and mechanisms and biological significance of genetic variability of RNA viruses.
Session 3: Virus-host interactions
Pestiviruses: How to be smarter than your hosts
Dr Ernst Peterhans
Ernst Peterhans studied veterinary medicine in Zurich where he also did his doctoral degree on the role of mitochondria in cells infected with Semliki Forest virus. From 1977-80 he worked as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra where he discovered that certain viruses, among them influenza- and paramyxoviruses, induce in phagocytic cells the generation of reactive oxygen species already within a few seconds after initial contact between virus and cell.
After returning to the Institute of Virology at the University of Zurich he combined the studies on the detrimental role of reactive oxygen species in viral infection with that of cytokines, using a murine influenza model. He moved to the University of Bern as professor of virology in 1984 and became the Director of the new Institute of Veterinary Virology in 1987. Lentiviral infections of goats and sheep, and, in the last fifteen years, pestiviral infections of cattle, goats and sheep were at the center of his interest.
In BVD, the interaction of the virus with the innate immune system provided an insight into the sophisticated strategy by which the virus combines the evasion of the host's interferon response with immunotolerance. In stark contrast to mouse models of viral infection, naturally occurring viral infections offer a unique opportunity to combine basic experimental studies on the pathogenesis and evolution with epidemiological field work. The combination of knowledge gained on the different aspects has led to improved diagnostic tools and, particularly rewarding for all involved in this work, to transform this knowledge into control programs.
Session 4: Diagnostics and vaccines / Biologicals and biosafety
Dr Martin Beer
After finishing his Doctoral thesis in 1995, Martin Beer started a career as a scientist at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Infectious and Epidemic Diseases at the Veterinary Faculty in Munich, Germany. In 2000, he joined the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Insel Riems, Germany, where he today holds a position as Director of the Institute of Diagnostic VirologyHe is also heading the national and O.I.E reference laboratory for BHV-1. In addition he is the workgroup leader of diagnostics and molecular biological research on pestiviruses. In his academic career he has also defended a post-doctoral thesis, earning him habilitation.
Martin has got 15-year expertise working with different animal viruses, in particular Pestiviruses (BVDV, BDV and CSFV) and animal Herpesviruses (BHV-1), with special emphasis on the development of novel vaccines and diagnostics. His recent research projects are focussed on new diagnostic systems (e.g. real-time PCR), and the development of marker vaccines as well as marker diagnostics allowing differentiation between vaccinated and infected animals (DIVA-principle).
Session 5: Epidemiology and control/ Socio-economic aspects of pestivirus control
Epidemiology and control of BVD in the U.S.
Dr Hana Van Campen
Hana Van Campen received her B.S. in Genetics and M.S. in Animal Science from the University of California, Davis, her D.V.M. degree from Purdue University and Ph.D. in Veterinary Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. Currently, she is an associate professor of Microbiology at Colorado State University and virology section head for CSU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Fort Collins.
Hana supervises the virology, serology and molecular diagnostic sections of CSU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Her diagnostic duties include answering veterinarians’ questions regarding interpretation of test results, testing strategies, and field investigations of disease in species ranging from cats to cattle. Her research interests include the epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and control of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) in beef cattle. She is actively involved in helping humane shelters prevent and control infectious diseases. She enjoys teaching medical and molecular virology to undergraduate Microbiology majors at Colorado State University.
Closing paper:
Eradication of BVDV: Where to in the future?
Dr Stefan Alenius
Stefan Alenius studied Veterinary Medicine at the Royal Veterinary College, Stockholm, and graduated in 1975, and already as a student he became aware of the serious effects of BVDV infections in cattle, and that research was needed to find effective methods to control them. In 1976, he started PhD studies on the effects of antiviral substances in vitro and vivo, at the Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala. His PhD thesis described the therapeutic effects of trisodium phosphonoformate (foscarnet), a new antiviral compound, that was found during the PhD studies and the discovery was first published in Science in 1978. After his PhD, 1980 to 1982, Stefan was employed at Astra Läkemedel AB, Research and Development laboratories. He moved on to the Department of Cattle and Sheep Diseases at SLU in 1982-1989 and was later employed as state veterinarian 1990-1999 at the National Veterinary Institute, before returning to SLU in 2000, this time as a Professor in Ruminant Medicine at the Department of Clinical Sciences.
Stefans main interest is in the pathogenesis, epidemiology and methods to control virus infections in cattle populations. Much of his research has been concentrated on the effects of virus infections on reproduction and health in cattle and sheep. In 1992, he and his co-workers published the principles for eradication of BVDV on a national level in the Swedish Veterinary Journal. Control programmes for BVDV that follow these principles were subsequently launched in all Scandinavian countries, and have proven to be very successful. At present Stefan is involved in epidemiological and clinical research with the aim to find effective control methods for chlamydia, E.coli O 157, bovine coronavirus (BCV) and bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). BVDV work is also still ongoing and in 2006, he supervised the discovery of a new pestivirus in the Thai cattle population. Studies are now in progress to try to understand how this atypical “HoBi”-like virus was introduced and also how this virus can be accurately diagnosed.
