ABSTRACT

Bats, viruses and COVID-19

After the original SARS outbreak in 2003, Linfa Wang played a key role in identification of bats as the natural host of related coronaviruses. His current research focuses on why bats are such an important reservoir for emerging viruses and on how we can learn from bats to make us more resilient to infection and diseases in general. Bats have unique immune systems and metabolic strategies which enable them to live with diverse viruses in stable symbiotic relationships. This talk will reflect on the basic biology of bats to approach fundamental questions about how coronaviruses circulate through ecosystems and human communities.

While we are not completed out of the current COVID-19 (SARS-2) pandemic, it is important that we learn the lessons and get ourselves better prepared for the next pandemic whether it is SARS-3 or another pathogen from a different virus family. The talk will be mainly focused on the research activities in Linfa Wang’s research group with some personal reflections. Topics will include detection method, virus evolution and novel vaccine development strategies. Wearing the Executive Director hat for the national PREPARE (Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Responses) in Singapore, Wang will also introduce some new research initiatives in this domain.

The Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI) is a leading humanities and social sciences research institute based at Deakin University. The group of researchers at ADI Geelong, on the Waurn Ponds Campus, have research strengths in the medical humanities—we bring insights from contemporary philosophy and cultural theory to understand reproductive medicine, ethics, ecological relationships, and planetary health. 

DETAILS

You can attend this event either in person at Deakin Waurn Ponds (register), or tune in via Zoom (register). Please register your attendance either way.

Where: Think Tank, Nyaal Precinct, Building IC, Level 1 (IC1.103)

When: Wed., 20 April 2022, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm AEST

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Linfa Wang

Linfa Wang is a professor of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, and the executive director of PREPARE, Ministry of Health, Singapore. He is an international leader in the field of emerging zoonotic viruses and virus-host interaction. His current research focuses on why bats are such an important reservoir for emerging viruses and on how we can learn from bats to make us more resilience to infection and diseases in general. He is a member of the WHO SARS Scientific Research Advisory Committee and played a key role in identification of bats as the natural host of SARS-like viruses. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he has served/is serving on multiple WHO committees for COVID-19, including the WHO IHR Emergency Committee. Prof Wang has more than 500 scientific publications, including papers in Science, Nature, NEJM and Lancet. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief for the Virology Journal. Prof Wang was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2019 and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021. He received the Singapore President Science Award in 2021.