Lecture: Defeating Pandemic Viruses

Speaker:

Professor Ravindra Gupta MA, MPH, BMBCh, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, named as one of the 100 Most influential people worldwide by TIME Magazine.

Ravi Gupta has been Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases since 2019. Having completed his medical undergraduate studies at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, he pursued a Masters in Public Health at Harvard as a Fulbright scholar. Upon return, he trained in infectious diseases in Oxford and London (UCLH, Hospital for Tropical Diseases) and completed his PhD at UCL on lentiviral evasion of antiretrovirals and innate immune responses. He has worked extensively in HIV drug resistance, both at molecular and population levels, and his work demonstrating escalating global resistance led to change in WHO treatment guidelines for HIV. Whilst Professor at UCL, he led the team demonstrating HIV cure in the ‘London Patient’ – the world’s only living HIV cure, and the second recorded in history (Gupta et al, Nature 2019). In 2020, he was named one of the 100 Most influential people worldwide by TIME Magazine. He has deployed his expertise in RNA virus genetics and biology during the COVID-19 pandemic to report the first genotypic-phenotypic evidence for immune escape of SARS-CoV-2 within an individual, defining the process by which new variants likely arise (Kemp et al, Nature 2021), and also reporting some of the first data on Pfizer BioNTech vaccine-induced antibody responses against the B.1.1.7 Alpha variant that arose in the UK (Collier et al, Nature 2021). In addition, his group has defined poorer vaccine responses in the elderly, particularly with regard to variants of concern. Most recently Gupta’s work has defined the immune escape and transmissibility advantage of the Delta variant as the drive behind the global expansion of this variant

Lecture:

Over the past three years, the speed with which highly infectious strains of pathogenic viruses can be transmitted across the modern world and the difficulty of identifying and isolating cases before they infect others has been amply demonstrated by Covid-19. In spite of the immense sophistication of modern medicine, communications and production systems, the disease has caused the deaths and long-term illness of many millions of people worldwide. Nevertheless, without modern medicine and systems, the toll would have been far, far higher. Vaccines were developed at astonishing and unprecedented speed, citizens of most countries were persuaded or forced to comply with draconian lockdowns and the medical profession across the world responded with extraordinary commitment and sacrifice. However, mistakes inevitably were made because the disease was new and the learning curve for all was exceptionally steep. It is essential that these lessons are fully absorbed by both politicians and citizens across the world and are cemented into future international and national structures and processes. New viruses will inevitably arise which may be even more deadly. This is a unique opportunity to hear the views of one of the world’s leading infectious disease researchers on what needs to be done.

The lecture will be followed by refreshments.

Tickets:

£15, discounted to £12.50 for early purchases, £10 for concessions and £5 for sixth formers and teachers accompanying them. There is also booking fee of 79p per ticket.

Please note that tickets can only be bought by adults. If you are a sixth former, please arrange for your parents or a teacher to buy the tickets on your behalf, as you must be accompanied by an adult at the lecture. If this is not possible for you, we can arrange for a Norwich School staff member attending the lecture to act in loco parentis. Please contact the event organizer if you need this to happen or if you have any other questions.

The Norfolk Cambridge Society public lectures celebrate the rigorous pursuit and dissemination of truth by leading academics and distinguished others. They are open to all adults and sixth-formers and anyone is welcome to invite guests