News 2021
'Evolution of enhanced innate immune evasion by SARS-CoV-2' is published in Nature, Dec 2021
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Lucy and AK's work with Lorena and Mehdi Bouhaddou from the Krogen Lab on the enhanced evasion of the inante immune system by the Alpha varient when compared to the first wave strains is published in Nature.
Times Radio interviewed Greg as we move with Omicron into the New Year, Dec 2021
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SARS-CoV-2 Q&A with Greg, Maddy and Mala, and hosted by Richard, Dec 2021
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Professor Richard Milne hosts a discussion about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID19 with Greg and colleagues Professors Mala Maini and Maddy Noursadeghi both of whom work on COVID19 immunology for the UCL infection students. They discuss what we’ve learned about how CoV2 interacts with your immune system to give asymptomatic infection or drive disease.
NTV Broadcasting interviewed Greg for their Saturday Night Show, Dec 2021
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Russian TV station NTV interviewed Greg for his opinion of Omicron and vaccination.
Omicron and Christmas - Greg was interviewed with Professor Chris Smith from Cambridge University by LBC's Eddie Mair, Dec 2021
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Welcome to the lab to our two new PhD students! Sept, 2021
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Lydia and Kate have joined the Towers lab to complete their PhDs. Lydia is on the UCL Birkbeck MRC DTP in colaboration with Professor Flemming Hansen (Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology) and Kate is on the ISMB 4 year Interdisciplinary PhD Programme in Structural, Computational and Chemical Biology in collaboration with Professor David Selwood.
Steve has produced some epic images of SARS-CoV-2 infection, Sept 2021
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Dr Steve Gschmeissner, who we collaborate with on SEM imaging, has taken some great pictures of Giulia's SARS-CoV-2 infected VeroE6-tmprss, CaCo-2, and Calu-3 cells
NTV returned to interview Greg for a COVID update, Aug 2021
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Russian TV station NTV re-visited the lab for an update from Greg on COVID and vaccination.
We welcome our new Postdocs, July 2021
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We welcome Dara, Jas, Ying and Giulia to the lab. Looking forward to working with you in these exciting times.
Dr Steve Gschmeissner has been awarded the Lennart Nilsson Award, June 2021
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Steve has been awarded the 2021 Lennart Nilsson Award in recognition of his skillful use of the SEM to reveal the minute world of the cell and his many years of work across various fields including virology and cancer research.
Greg consults to the WHO, June 2021
Greg presented 'EVOLUTION OF ENHANCED INNATE IMMUNE EVASION BY SARS-CoV-2 UK B.1.1.7 VARIANT' to WHO with Prof Nevan Krogan from the University of California, San Fransisco
Rich is moving on from the Towers lab, June 2021
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After 8 years, one PhD and a Postdoc, Rich is moving on to a new career in law. We wish him luck and look forward to catching up.
'Evolution of enhanced innate immune evasion by the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 UK variant' is on BioRxiv and The New York Times has been talking to Greg and Nevan Krogan, June 2021
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Our latest paper with collaborators including the Jolly and Krogan labs, demonstrating our work on how the Alpha variant evades early immune responses is on BioRxiv and it has attracted the attention of the New York Times.
Sophie is moving on from the Towers lab to join the MRC, June 2021
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Sophie has left to join the MRC's translational technology unit. We are sorry to see her go but look forward to plenty of coffees and beers while keeping in touch.
We said 'Goodbye' to Ethel who has gone on to a position with the NHS, May 2021
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We waived a fond fairwell to Ethel as she left to persue a career with CQUIN in the NHS. We wrapped up warm to enjoy our first socially distanced drink in the pub for some time!
Lucy, AK, Lorena and Matt's paper is published in The Embo Journal, May 2021
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All the hours and hard work in the cat3 lab have paid off. Lucy, Lorena, AK and Matt's paper is published in The Embo Journal. SARS-CoV-2 sensing by RIG-I and MDA5 links epithelial infection to macrophage inflammation.
Variants of concern and the Route out of lockdown, Greg is interviewed by Andrew Caslte on LBC, April 2021
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Greg discusses how concerned we should be about variants and how feasible it is for all travelers from abroard to quarantine with Andrew Castle at LBC
Ilaria has left to take up a position in Italy, March 2021
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Ilaria has gone on to work with Prof Piero Carninci at the Human Technopole in Milan. We are sorry to say 'Goodbye!' from such a distance after so many years at UCL. We wish her well in Italy and hope to catch up soon.
Emerging Variants, The Red Queen Theory and Nextstrain. Greg is interviewed by Metro, March 2021
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Greg spoke to Metro about emerging variants of COVID and their spread around the globe. He discusses the Red Queen theory of an arms race between virus and host immune response to explain the drive behind mutations.
ABC News joined Lucy and AK as they met with Lorena and the rest of our American collaborators on Teams, March 2021
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Chris van Tulleken interviewed Greg for 'The Jump' on Radio 4, March 2021
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Human behavoirs are causing pandemics. Chris van Tulleken interviews experts from across the virology field to investigate why viruses jump host species and the behavoirs humans have that increase the risk of this. In episode 3 he interviews Greg about HIV, its history of jumping and if we know why it sometimes becomes pandemic. Listen to 'The Jump' on Radio 4.
Brazil's COVID varient's spread accross Europe mapped - Metro interviewed Greg, March 2021
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Greg was interviewed by Metro about the COVID varient first found in Brazil's spread across Europe. The Genie is out of the bottle.
Doug has returned to Clinical Training. But he'll be back! Feb 2021
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We said 'Goodbye!' to Doug who has gone on to the next stage of his clinical career. We hope to see him back later in the year.
WIRED magazine has been chatting with Greg, Feb 2021
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The safety of UV-C wands and their effectivity can we be sure they are living up to their claims? And our expectations of summer in 2021, the possibility of travel, sporting, and music events and the role vaccine will play.
Will the Kent Variant Sweep the world? Greg discusses this and more on LBC, Feb 2021
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Greg was interviewed by Tom Swarbrick on LBC about the SARS-CoV-2 Kent varient, why varients emerge and how likely they are to sweep the world. Listen to his interview on LBC here.
The Express picks up the LBC interview on the Kent Variant, Feb 2021
Russian TV station interviewed Greg about COVID Research, Feb 2021
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Russian TV statoin NTV is keen to hear about the latest SARS-CoV-2 research
iNews Reports on our Published Work on Aplidin, Jan 2021
Go to the iNews site to read their article.
'Host-directed therapies against early-lineage SARS-CoV-2 retain efficacy against B.1.1.7 variant' published on BioRxiv, Jan 2021
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The first study of the full-length B.1.1.7 variant virus, we find two host-directed drugs to possess similar antiviral activity against both the early-lineage SARS-CoV-2 and the B.1.1.7 variant. Read the results of Lucy, AK and Lorena's long hours and hard work alongside the Krogan lab at UCSF.
The Towers lab is part of the ‘G2P-UK’ National Virology Consortium’, Jan 2021
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‘G2P-UK’ National Virology Consortium’ unites 10 UK Institutions to investigate the threats of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Read about the Consortium and the UCL team, lead by Greg Towers, in 'Threats of new SARS-CoV-2 variants focus of UK-wide study'
