'Ebola virus immunology, then and now'

Abstract

Despite its importance as a public health threat there is a lack of knowledge about how humans initiate adaptive immune responses to Ebola virus infection. Here we will discuss recent insight into the role of dendritic cells and T cells on Ebola virus immunity and pathophysiology. In addition, we will discuss how these new findings may provide new opportunities for the design of post-exposure therapies.

CV highlights

Dr. Muñoz-Fontela?s work has been published in Plos Pathogens, Nature, Science, and Journal of Virology.  He has been the recipient of Society Needs Science Award, Stifterverband and Leibniz Association in 2016, and the Loeffler Frosch Award, German Society of Virology in 2017.
Dr. Muñoz-Fontela investigates the immunology of viral hemorrhagic fevers with a special focus on filoviruses. His vision is to advance the field by providing insight into a poorly known aspect of filovirus disease, namely, the physiology of the host immune response in vivo, both in relevant animal models as well as in humans. His strategy is to model virus immunity in newly generated immunocompetent animal models including humanized mice. In addition, his laboratory also studies human immunity to hemorrhagic fever viruses in the field. For this purpose, he has established state of the art laboratory immunology capacity in Nigeria and Guinea. The lessons learnt from this basic research are used to identify correlates of disease outcome as well as targets for immunotherapy.