From Disease to Cure: Viruses at Work

On one hand, our world has lived through a pandemic which has caused a lot of anxiety about microbes, especially viruses. However, on the other hand, we are able to safely engineer and produce some viruses in the lab to serve specific needs. Ail will highlight how safely engineered viruses are being used for gene therapy to cure blinding diseases.

Inflammation is the weapon, by which the immune system fights against different types of dangers for the organism such as invading pathogens, damaged cells, toxic compounds and irradiation. Even though inflammation is a defence process, essential for our survival, when there is a dysregulation of the immune response and the state of inflammation becomes chronic, it leads to the development of the so-called inflammatory and auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Ivana will present the features of these diseases and will outline a new treatment perspective.