Pathogens Webinar | Latest Updates on Gastroenteric Viruses
the chair
4th Pathogens Webinar
Latest Updates on Gastroenteric Viruses
Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is one of the most common illnesses in humans worldwide, being responsible for half a million deaths among children aged < 5 years, mostly in developing countries. Although in industrialized nations deaths from AGE are rarely seen, gastrointestinal diseases remain an important cause of morbidity in younger children resulting in substantial medical and healthcare expenses, lost productivity, and other costs to society and families. Enteric viruses have been recognized as the most significant etiologic agents of AGE in children and four viruses are being considered as clinically relevant: group A rotavirus (RVA), norovirus (NoV), adeno virus 40/41 (AdV) and astrovirus (AstV). These viruses are characterized by a high genetic and antigenic variability, due to evolutionary mechanisms such as rearrangement, re-assortment, inter-species transmission and positive accumulation of point mutations. The continuous emergence and re-emergence of several variants poses challenge for their classification, but also for development of diagnostics assays and suitable vaccines. The aim of this webinar is to focus on the temporal pattern of evolution of the main enteric viruses. In particular, large-scale surveillance studies on RVA, NoV and AstV will be showed in order to update information about their genetic evolution over the time. Moreover, the experience acquired on RVA vaccine will be presented to underline the importance of molecular epidemiology investigation as a valuable baseline information for new vaccines development.
Date: 28 September 2021
Time: 3:30pm CEST | 9:30am EDT | 9:30pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 881 3272 0184
Webinar Secretariat: pathogens.webinar@mdpi.com
Meet Our Speakers
Prof. Dr. Simona De Grazia
Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties;
Simona De Grazia is an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology at the Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Italy. She obtained her Specialization in Clinical Microbiology and Virology in 2004 and from 2005 to 2014 was Researcher at the Medicine Faculty, Department of Health Promotion Sciences, University of Palermo. Her research is devoted to study genetic evolution and molecular epidemiology of human enteric viruses such as rotavirus, norovirus and astrovirus. Prof De Grazia is author/co-author of 78 publications in international journals (h-index: 26; total citations: 1768) and peer-reviewer for numerous international publication. She has teaching experience of graduate Microbiology courses at the Medical, Rehabilitation therapy, Nursing, Biotechnology Schools and of postgraduate Microbiology courses at the Microbiology and Virology and Infectious and Tropical Diseases Specialization Schools, of Infectious-Master course in Laboratory Medicine and PhD course in Experimental Oncology and surgery at the University of Palermo and of the PhD course in Animal Health and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Bari. She is member of national scientific societies including: the “Società Italiana di Microbiologia” (SIM) and the “Società Italiana di Virologia Medica” (SIVM).
Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. Simona De Grazia, Dr. Floriana Bonura
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2021