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SUMMARY:EESS seminar talk on "The Proteolytic Inactivation of Viruses in L
 akewater"
DTSTART:20260421T121500
DTEND:20260421T124500
DTSTAMP:20260406T052227Z
UID:a22fd6028a910dc70f6876eb526d33479f7cabd44e7cfcdc814cd58b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Josephine Meibom\, LEV\nAbstract:\n\n\nMany human viruses are
  transmitted via the environment and thereby come into contact with indige
 nous microorganisms. Microbes are known to decrease the stability of virus
 es in the lakewater through the action of their secreted proteases\, enzym
 es that cleave proteins and can hence compromise the integrity of the vira
 l capsid. Interestingly\, the antiviral activity of microbial proteases ap
 pears to be virus type specific. Yet\, the molecular basis for this remain
 s unexplored. In this work\, we integrate lakewater decay experiments\, pr
 oteolytic-cleavage profiling\, and capsid structural data to identify the 
 viral features that control the stability of an enterovirus\, echovirus 11
 \, in Lake Genva. Using a reverse-genetics system\, we identify a single c
 apsid residue\, VP2.Y97\, as a major determinant of the susceptibility of 
 echovirus 11 to environmental proteases. Notably\, this residue is absent 
 in several enterovirus types that exhibit greater environmental stability\
 , indicating that substitution at a single position can shift enterovirus 
 persistence in natural waters. These findings improve mechanistic understa
 nding of pathogen fate in surface waters relevant to water quality and pub
 lic-health protection.\n\n\n\n\n\nBiography:\n\n\n\nI completed both my ba
 chelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry at EPFL\, Switzerland. Curr
 ently\, I am a last-year PhD student in the Laboratory of Environmental Vi
 rology (LEV) at EPFL\, supervised by Prof. Tamar Kohn. My work focuses on 
 the fate of human viruses in lakewater and understanding the role that mic
 robial proteases play in virus inactivation.\n\n
LOCATION:GC B1 10 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GC%20B1%2010 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/69011077410
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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