Christina Guzzo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Virology
Department of Biological Sciences

University of Toronto Scarborough

Finding Fingerprints on Viruses; Why and How We Should Study Them

The global burden of HIV/AIDS remains one of the greatest scientific and public health challenges of our time, with more people infected with HIV today across the globe than the entire population of Canada. Progress in this field requires a better understanding of HIV infection and spread. Indeed, we still lack a complete understanding of where the virus hides once it establishes life-long infection, how the virus interacts with different human immune cells, and how best to eliminate viruses to achieve a cure. Our lab studies how the surface of HIV viruses can be decorated with a variety of human proteins, resulting in a ‘protein fingerprint’ on the virus surface that can provide new and important clues as to where the virus is hiding. This protein fingerprint also gives the virus new biological properties, such as altered homing in the body and attachment to different immune cell types. To study the protein fingerprint on viruses, we are pioneering new experimental methods in flow virometry, which is the adaptation of flow cytometry techniques for nanoparticle analyses. Our flow virometry methods enable us to analyze single virus particles in their native state with high-throughput efficiency, with the added advantage to quantify the number of protein molecules per virus particle. In future, our discoveries of new proteins on HIV virions could guide the development of more effective anti-viral treatments and/or vaccine designs, including those that consider targeting both human and viral proteins present on viruses. Furthermore, our work provides new research tools that could be easily applied to studies on other nanoparticles, including extracellular vesicles .

Friday February 24th, 2023
10:00am – 11:00am
Botterell Hall, Room B139

Jennifer Geddes-McAlister, Ph.D. (she/her)
Assistant Professor
Director, Bioinformatics Graduate Program
Alexander von Humboldt Scholar
President, Canadian National Proteomics Network (CNPN)
Co-founder, Canadian Proteomics & Artificial Intelligence Consortium (CanProteoAI)
Founder, Moms in Proteomics
Molecular and Cellular Biology Department | University of Guelph

Proteomics of Fungal Disease in One Health

Fungal diseases greatly impact the world around us, including our environment, food, and health. Beginning with the food we eat, the application of fungicides to protect cereal crops from devastating fungal diseases (e.g., Fusarium head blight) can reduce, but may not eliminate infection. Importantly, secondary metabolites (e.g., mycotoxins) can accumulate within the plant despite reduced infection to induce vomiting and toxic responses within animals and humans following consumption of contaminated grains. The application of fungicides to prevent disease in cereal crops can propagate throughout the environment and promote the development of resistance for environmental microbes, including the human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. This fungi is capable of infecting animals and humans to cause life-threatening disease, which leads to mortality of the host if the current antifungal drugs are not effective against resistant fungal strains. To address these global challenges, my research program bridges together environmental, animal, and human health to uncover new prevention and treatment strategies against agriculturally- and medically-relevant diseases. The goal is to increase our understanding of these complex biological systems to disrupt the infection cycle for improved global food security and health.

BMED 897 MSc Seminars

Tuesday January 31, 2023

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Botterell Hall, Room B139

Richard Nauman

Microbes, Immunity and Inflammation Field

1:00 – 1:30 pm

Investigating the Role of Trained Immunity in Bladder Cancer Progression                

Supervisor – Dr. Charles Graham

Julia Barilo

Microbes, Immunity and Inflammation Field

1:30 – 2:00 pm

Characterizing the Innate Immune Response of Alternatively Activated Macrophages to LCMV Infection                      

Supervisor – Dr. Sam Basta

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BMED 897 MSc Seminars

Daniella Gilmour

Experimental Medicine Field

Supervisor – Drs. Alan Lomax and Stephen Vanner

Synergistic Effects of Histamine and Proteases in Visceral Hypersensitivity

Tuesday January 24, 2023

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Botterell Hall, Room B139