MBS Seminar - Leveraging bioinformatics to identify functional RNA structures necessary for viral replication and emergence

Title: Leveraging bioinformatics to identify functional RNA structures necessary for viral replication and emergence.

Speaker: Dr Jenny Hyde, University of Washington (USA)

Bio: Dr Jenny Hyde is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, USA. She earned her PhD in Virology from the University of Queensland in 2011, where she characterised the intracellular replication and pathogenesis of murine norovirus under the mentorship of Dr. Jason Mackenzie. During her postdoctoral training with Prof Michael Diamond, Dr Hyde studied interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) that restrict alphavirus replication using high-throughput loss-of-function screens. Her work included detailed characterisations of the mechanism of action of ISGs such as Ifit1 and Ifit2, using in vitro and in vivo assays, and identifying viral RNA structural elements that modulate pathogenesis. Since establishing her independent research group at the University of Washington in 2017, Dr. Hyde has focused on understanding virus-host interactions that contribute to the pathogenesis of alphaviruses and other positive-sense RNA (+ssRNA) viruses. Her research examines how viral RNA structure determines viral pathogenesis and regulates viral replication under various conditions (e.g. mosquitoes and mammals), diverse environmental factors such as temperature, and immune activation states.