Geoffrey L Smith
Virology
Friedrich Loeffler Institute
Germany
Biography
Geoffrey Smith is Head of Department, Professor of Pathology and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge. He obtained his PhD (1981) for work with influenza virus at NIMR, London. Then as a postdoc in the laboratory of Bernard Moss at NIH, USA (1981-84), together with Michael Mackett, he developed vaccinia virus (the smallpox vaccine) as an expression vector and established the use of genetically engineered viruses as live vaccines. He continued working with poxviruses after returning to UK at Cambridge (1985-9), Oxford (1989-2000), Imperial College London (2000-11) and now as Head of the Department of Pathology in Cambridge. His research studies the interactions of poxviruses with the host cell and immune system.
Research Interest
The group studies poxviruses, specifically vaccinia virus, the live vaccine used to eradicate smallpox
Publications
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Mansur, D.S., Maluquer de Motes, C., Unterholzner, L., Sumner, R.P., Ferguson, B.J., Ren, H., Strnadova, P., Bowie, A.G. & Smith, G.L. (2013). Poxvirus targeting of β-TrCP by molecular mimicry: a mechanism to inhibit NF-κB activation and promote immune evasion and virulence. PLoS Pathogens 9, e1003183.
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Ferguson, B.J., Mansur, D., Peters, N.E., Ren, H. & Smith, G.L (2012). DNA-PK is a DNA sensor for IRF-3 dependent innate immunity. eLife 1, 0047.
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Doceul, V., Hollinshead, M., van der Linden, L. & Smith, G.L. (2010). Repulsion of superinfecting virions: a mechanism for rapid virus spread. Science, 327, 873-7.
