RESEARCH PROFILE

Human adenoviruses (Ads) have evolved strategies to counteract the host immune system. As a result, these DNA viruses not only cause acute infections of the respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract and the eye, but also establish persistent infections. The diseases associated with infection range in severity from mild to life-threatening in immunocompromised (AIDS, transplantation) patients.

The primary goal of our research is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which adenoviruses evade the host immune defence. Apart from gaining insight into basic processes of the cell and the immune system, knowledge about these mechanisms is crucial for applying and improving adenovirus vectors for gene therapy and vaccination.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Sester, M., Koebernick, K., Owen, D., Ao, M., Bromberg, Y., May, E., Stock, E., Andrews, L., Groh, V., Spies, T., Steinle, A., Menz, B. and Burgert, H.-G.(2010) 'Conserved amino acids within the Adenovirus 2 E3/19K protein differentially affect down regulation of MHC class I and MICA/B proteins' Journal Of Immunology 184 (1), 255 - 267 (0022-1767)
• Menz, B., Sester, M., Koebernick, K., Schmid, R. and Burgert, H. -G.(2008) 'Structural analysis of the adenovirus type 2 E3/19K protein using mutagenesis and a panel of conformation-sensitive monoclonal antibodies' Molecular Immunology 46 (1), 16 - 26 (0161-5890) [article]
• McSharry, B. P., Burgert, H. -G., Owen, D. P., Stanton, R. J., Prod?homme, V., Sester, M., Koebernick, K., Groh, V., Spies, T., Cox, S., Little, A. -M., Wang, E. C. Y., Tomasec, P. and Wilkinson, G. W. G.(2008) 'Adenovirus E3/19K promotes evasion of NK cell recognition by intracellular sequestration of the NKG2D ligands major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related proteins A and B' Journal Of Virology 82 (9), 4585 - 4594 (0022-538X)
• Sherwood V, Burgert H-G, Chen YH, Sanghera S, Katafigiotis S, Randall RE, Connerton I, Mellits KH(2007) 'Improved Growth of Enteric Adenovirus Type 40 in a Modified Cell Line that Can No Longer Respond to Interferon Stimulation' Journal Of General Virology 88 71 - 76 (0022-1317)
• Ruzsics Z, Wagner M , Osterlehner A, Cook J, Koszinowski U, Burgert H-G(2006) 'Transposon-assisted cloning and traceless mutagenesis of adenoviruses: development of a novel vector based on species D' Journal Of Virology 80 1 - 14 (0022-538X)

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