How viruses enter their host cells.

Viruses replicate within living cells and make use of the cellular machinery for synthesis of their genome and other components. To gain access, they have evolved a variety of elegant mechanisms to deliver their genes and accessory proteins into the host cell. We find that most animal viruses take advantage of endocytic pathways, and rely on the cell to guide them through a complex entry and uncoating program. In the dialogue between the cell and the intruder, the cell provides critical cues that allow the virus to undergo molecular transformations that lead to successful internalization, intracellular transport, and uncoating. The virus in turn makes use of the cells signaling pathways to send messages into the cell that make entry possible. [Viren vermehren sich in lebenden Zellen und bedienen sich dabei der Maschinerie der befallenen Zelle. Im Vortrag werden Mechanismen beschrieben, die Viren entwickelt haben, um in die Zelle eindringen und sie zu ihren Gunsten umzuprogrammieren.]

Ari Helenius: Candidate of Philosophy (Biochemistry) Univ. Helsinki (1970); Doctor of Philosophy, Univ. Helsinki (1973); Junior Investigator at the Finnish Academy of Natural Sciences (1974-1975); Staff Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg (1975- 1981); Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine (1981-1983); Professor of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine (1983-1997); Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University (1987-present); Chairman of Cell Biology Department, Yale University School of Medicine (1992-1997); Professor of Biochemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) (1997- present); Chairman (Vorsteher) ETHZ Institute of Biochemistry (1999-2003). Numerous editorships, outstanding prizes and awards. Among them: Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (1991-1992), Lamb Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis, Vanderbilt University (1992), NICHD Lectureship in Cell Biology (1992), Honorary Professor Davila Univ. Bucharest, Romania (1993), A.I. Virtanen Prize in Biochemistry (1995). The Spinoza Guest Professorship, Univ. Amsterdam (1997), Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO, since 1999); Member of Leopoldina, Sektion Biochemie und Biophysik (since 2001), Ernst-Jung Preis für Medizin 2003, Schleiden-Medaille der Leopoldina (2003).

Forschungsschwerpunkte: Arbeiten zu grundlegenden und krankheitsrelevanten Aspekten 1) der Proteinfaltung und Proteinreifung und 2) der Virus-Zell Interaktionen.

Kontaktadresse: Prof. Dr. Ari Helenius, ETH Hönggerberg, HPM E 6.3 Institut für Biochemie, Schaffmattstrasse 18, CH-8093 Zürich