Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 4 – 5:30 PM EDT

Kathryn V. Holmes, PhD -- Professor Emerita of Immunology, University of Colorado, School of Medicine

"Why are Coronaviruses so Frequently Implicated in Emerging Diseases of Humans and Domestic Animals?"

Long ago when Kathryn first set up her laboratory, she chose to study a mouse coronavirus that causes important diseases in inbred mouse colonies for two reasons: little was known about coronaviruses because they were difficult to grow in cell cultures and she wanted to study an animal virus that she would not carry home to infect her two small children. She soon became interested in why each coronavirus generally infects only a single host and discovered that a key determinant of coronavirus host range is how the viral spike glycoprotein recognizes a receptor on the surface of cells of its host species to begin infection. But there are many different coronaviruses that cause diseases in humans or domestic or wild animals. Kathryn will discuss how coronaviruses--rarely--jump from one host to another to begin epidemics like SARS, MERS, or COVID-19 or epizootics like SADS in pigs, and then, sometimes, become established in the new host. What factors in coronavirus replication promote the possibility of such host jumps? Why are these jumps often associated with emerging diseases from wildlife reservoirs? Can such jumps be anticipated and prevented?