Current Methods for Understanding Flavivirus (Dengue/Zika) and Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Jose Angel Regla Nava

La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Dr. Jose Angel Regla-Nava is a Research Fellow at the La Jolla Institute, San Diego (USA). His research projects are mainly focused on understanding virus-host interactions during infection in animal models and human cells with Dengue and Zika viruses. He graduated from Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico) with a BSc degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biology. He then obtained a MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2010 and a PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biomedicine, and Biotechnology (Molecular Bioscience) in 2015 from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain. His PhD work focused on the identification of the mechanisms that induce reversion to virulence in an attenuated SARS-CoV strain for the purposes of designing a genetically stable vaccine. Dr. Regla has received a number of awards including the “Winter School on Advanced Immunology” by the Network of Immunology Frontiers, (Singapore) and “Tsinghua-RIKEN Summer Program on Advanced Immunology”, Beijing (China). He has also been a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers. In the context of Dengue, ZIKA and COVID-19, he is working on developing vaccines and mouse models. He has published more than 20 high-quality research articles in prestigious journals in which he is the first author, co-author and/or corresponding author.

Collection Overview

- Zika virus virus-host interactions and pathogenesis.

ZIKV was discovered over 50 years ago, but since the 2015-2016 Brazil outbreak, new syndromes associated with ZIKV infection have begun to emerge including birth defects, sexual transmission, Guillain Barre syndrome, and genital persistence. These studies will deal with establishing mouse models of ZIKV sexual transmission, vaginal persistence, and infection of adult neuronal stem cells.

-Coronavirus virus-host cell interactions and pathogenesis.

Human coronaviruses are the cause of up to 15% of all respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV infection. These studies defined multiple viral factors associated with SARS virulence and identified promising vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV. SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious respiratory disease, causing thousands of deaths and overwhelming public health systems.