Center for Bioinformatics at KU

As part of our public Seminar Series
http://bioinformatics.ku.edu/seminars

December 9, Tue 2008
1:00 pm, MRB 100 Conference Room

Dr. Mark Walter

Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Protein Design by Virus

The genomes of pox and herpes viruses encode proteins that share sequence identity with human cellular proteins that control the immune system. Thus, viruses have “stolen” human genes, modified them, and now use them to disrupt our immune defenses. This talk will describe crystal structures and functional studies to understand how virus encoded proteins disrupt interferon and interleukin signaling.