Grant: Operating Grant

Ducks survive lethal strains of avian influenza due to a robust and controlled innate immune response. In contrast, chickens die in a few days. Our goal is to understand a successful innate immune response to lethal avian influenza, in the natural animal host, the duck. This will provide the gold standard to mimic for therapeutic intervention in humans, and to inform animal vaccination strategies. We are studying the detectors that initiate innate antiviral responses and instruct the memory response. A detector called RIG-I, critically important in human responses, is also present in ducks. This detector is the master control switch which turns on the antiviral response. Notably, we are unable to find any evidence of RIG-I in chickens. This may be the reason that ducks survive influenza and chickens do not. We will determine whether duck RIG-I works to protect ducks against bird flu. The duck detector is very different from the human counterpart, so we want to know if it works better. Ultimately, our work will help us design safer vaccines for animals.