In collaboration with Institut Pasteur, QBI presents a seminar with Marc Lavigne, a Research Director at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where he leads the team on “Viral Replication and Nucleic Acids” in the Department of Virology.

Dr. Lavigne serves as the Scientific Secretary of the CNRS section 21 and is a member of the Scientific and Medical Committee of Sidaction. He earned his PhD in transcriptional regulation from Paris VI University and completed his postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He has held various prestigious research roles, including at the Institut Pasteur, Harvard University, and ENS Lyon. His research primarily focuses on HIV-1, SARS-CoV-2, gene expression, chromatin interactions, protein-nucleic acid dynamics, and antiviral therapeutics.

Talk Title: Role of Guanine Quadruplexes In HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Replication

Guanine quadruplexes (G4) are non-canonical nucleic acid structures, formed in guanine-rich sequences, and regulating key cellular processes such as genome replication and gene expression. G4s also regulate the infection by several viruses and act at different steps of their replication cycles. Dr. Lavigne's team investigates the roles of G4s during HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 replication. Concerning HIV-1, they have recently shown that DNA Topoisoimerase1 interacts with G4s present in the LTR promoter and represses viral transcription in a G4-dependent manner. They have also identified Paraspeckle (PSp) proteins as new partners of LTR G4s and repressors of viral transcription. His team is presently investigating the roles of G4/PSp proteins complexes as regulators of viral expression and latency. Concerning SARS-CoV-2, they have characterized the interaction between its Nsp3 SUD domain and RNA G4s and the possibility to use this interaction as a new antiviral target. They are presently characterizing RNA and protein partners of Nsp3, in infected cells. In addition, they have identified several G4-ligands preventing the SUD/G4 complexes and blocking viral infection. The antiviral property of these molecules is presently investigated in animal models of infection.

Host: Geeta Narlikar