• Question: How close are you to finding out how the immune system fights viruses

    Asked by Sadie Connolly to Craig on 15 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Craig O'Hare

      Craig O'Hare answered on 15 Mar 2017:


      I recently published a paper showing that our skin cells rely on two proteins to work together to detect infections from DNA virus infections. This is a big step forward but it’s really only a tiny piece of the big picture in how our immune system works.

      Now that we know what we need to detect DNA viruses we can start looking at how viruses interfere with them to switch off the immune system. This way we can make therapies or drugs to support the cell better as it copes with viral infection.

Comments