Research Investigator
Gladstone Institute of Virology
UC, San Francisco

Antivirals with high genetic barriers to the evolution of resistance

Emerging and re-emerging viral diseases are a huge burden to global health. Though antivirals have been designed against emerging viruses, the challenge they face is that they are ‘static’, i.e., they do not adapt with the virus, enabling the evolution of drug-resistant variants, another challenge associated with these antivirals is dose-limiting toxicity. There is a critical need to design escape-resistant therapeutic interventions. The probability that a pathogen will evolve drug resistant—‘escape’— variants depends on various factors, including the pathogen’s pre-existing genetic diversity, its mutation and recombination rates, the establishment of latency, and the effective population size. I created two new classes of escape-resistant therapeutics. I designed Feedback Disruptors (FDs) that function via a new concept of ‘open-loop lethality’ (Chaturvedi* et al. Cell 2022; *= co-corresponding author).  I also engineered the first Therapeutic Interfering Particles (TIPs) for RNA viruses, directly addressing the unmet medical need of avoiding drug resistance and curbing virus transmission (Chaturvedi* et al. Cell 2021, Chaturvedi et al. PNAS 2022; *= co-corresponding author). 

About Dr. Chaturvedi

Host:  Gabor Balazsi

​This will be a hybrid seminar but we hope that you will join in person. 

In person: ​Laufer Lecture Hall 101​

Or join Zoom​: https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/93697499994?pwd=MXllRXg4cWRXcEdCUWplWktOWlV1UT09

Refreshments following the seminar in room 110