Alumni Association
Professor Charles Bangham (Imperial College London)
05 April 2013
Project title: Analyses
of new viral antigen of human T cell leukemia virus type 1 and development of
new vaccine
Japanese
Lead Scientist: Professor Masao Matsuoka, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine,
Kyoto University
UK Counterpart: Professor Charles Bangham, Department of Medicine, Wright Fleming Wing, St. Mary's Campus, Imperial College London
Project
duration: April 2011 to 2013
The aim of this project is to develop
candidate vaccines against the retrovirus human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1).
Background: we study infection with the human T lymphotropic virus type 1, HTLV-1, a
retrovirus that causes a disabling chronic neurological disease and a fatal
leukaemia in humans. Recent evidence
from our laboratory in Imperial College indicates that a strong lymphocyte
immune response to the HTLV-1 protein HBZ reduces the viral burden and the risk
of virus-associated diseases. Prof.
Matsuoka’s laboratory has made several fundamental contributions to the
understanding of the functions of the HBZ protein. In this collaborative project, three exchange
laboratory visits have been made to date between Kyoto and London, to exchange
ideas and protocols, and specifically to train workers from the Kyoto
laboratory in two key experimental techniques: first, to study the T lymphocyte response to viral antigens, and second,
the high-throughput sequencing and mapping of the integration of HTLV-1 in the
host genome.
Progress: the project has made excellent progress, and the first experimental
vaccinations have been made in Prof Matsuoka’s laboratory in Kyoto
University. We anticipate that the
results will have both scientific and clinical significance in HTLV-1
infection.
Matched funding from UK: we have been awarded a grant from the Royal Society of London under their international exchange programme, to fund exchange visits between the two laboratories. This perfectly complements the JSPS funding. We are currently planning further exchange visits, to develop experimental protocols further and analyse the preliminary results.
Charles R M Bangham
Imperial
College London
5th
April 2013
