Melanie Brinkmann is a German virologist. Until 2019 she was probably best known in connection with her work on the Cytomegalovirus. During 2020 she emerged as a much consulted expert-pundit for media commentators keen to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. Brinkmann took a robust public position in the campaign against pandemic misinformation: she described the so-called "virus of false information" as "more deadly than the [COVID-19] virus itself". [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Melanie Margarete Brinkmann was born at Neustadt am Rübenberge, a town near Hanover, and attended school in nearby Garbsen. In 1993 she enrolled at the University of Hanover where for a year she studied Anglistics and Sociology. In 1994 she transferred to Göttingen, emerging two years later with a first degree in Biology. [1] Following a formal 'very good' (sehr gut) commendation in recognition of her exam grades Brinkmann moved on again, this time to Berlin, still studying biology. [4] However, it was from the University of Hanover that in 2004 she received her doctorate, for which she was supervised by Thomas F. Schulz. Her dissertation concerned the "Functional properties of proteins encoded by the K15 gene of the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus". [6] [7] As well as the doctorate, this work earned her a "summa cum laude" commendation [1] and the doctorates prize awarded by the Hannover Medical School. [4] In 2007 she received a postdoctoral research prize for Virology from the Berlin-based Robert Koch Foundation. [1]
Supported by a research grant from the Bonn-based DFG, between 2006 and 2010 Brinkmann worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Hidde Ploegh at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [1] Her research focus was on Toll-like receptors (TLRs). [7]
In July 2010 Brinkmann took on the leadership of the "Immunotherapy Successor Group" ("Nachwuchsgruppe: Virale Immunmodulation") at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. She has since been involved in several virology and immunology research projects backed by the DFG. [8] The work she undertook between 2005 and 2008 in Massachusetts on TLRs was one of these: the project had as its objective the investigation of Herpesvirales immune escape. [9] Since 2010 she has been co-leader of the DFG project on Modulation of the Immune Response through the Gammaherpesvirinae-linked Kaposi's sarcoma, associated with the Herpesviridae and the Murines Herpesvirus 68 (BO3). [10]
Since 2018 Brinkmann has held a Level W2 professorship in Virus Genetics at the Genetics Institute of the "Technical University of Braunschweig" (TUB), [11] in which she oversees the "Infections and Active Elements" ("Infektionen und Wirkstoffe") research speciality. [7]
During the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic Brinkmann became a frequent media presence, principally in Germany. In May 2020 she was co-organiser and a co-signatory, with Christian Drosten of the Charité, of an open letter from 100 doctors, nurses and health experts calling for stronger action to be taken by providers of media platforms/services against pandemic misinformation. [12] [13] Billed, by this time, as "Germany's best known virologist", she shared these concerns in a television interview on 7 May 2020, insisting on the importance to virologists that infected people should not use false information as the basis for decisions that could imperil their lives or the lives of others: "We must ensure that information that has not yet been adequately evaluated by experts does not become widely disseminated". [3]
In 2016 Brinkmann received the Science Award - donated by Biomol GmbH of Hamburg - from the Hanover-based Signal transduction Society. [15]
The German Research Foundation is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding budget of €3.3 billion.
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the ninth known human herpesvirus; its formal name according to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is Human gammaherpesvirus 8, or HHV-8 in short. Like other herpesviruses, its informal names are used interchangeably with its formal ICTV name. This virus causes Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer commonly occurring in AIDS patients, as well as primary effusion lymphoma, HHV-8-associated multicentric Castleman's disease and KSHV inflammatory cytokine syndrome. It is one of seven currently known human cancer viruses, or oncoviruses. Even after many years since the discovery of KSHV/HHV8, there is no known cure for KSHV associated tumorigenesis.
An oncovirus or oncogenic virus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from studies of acutely transforming retroviruses in the 1950–60s, when the term "oncornaviruses" was used to denote their RNA virus origin. With the letters "RNA" removed, it now refers to any virus with a DNA or RNA genome causing cancer and is synonymous with "tumor virus" or "cancer virus". The vast majority of human and animal viruses do not cause cancer, probably because of longstanding co-evolution between the virus and its host. Oncoviruses have been important not only in epidemiology, but also in investigations of cell cycle control mechanisms such as the retinoblastoma protein.
Moritz Kaposi was a physician and dermatologist from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who discovered the skin tumor that received his name.
Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is classified as a diffuse large B cell lymphoma. It is a rare malignancy of plasmablastic cells that occurs in individuals that are infected with the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. Plasmablasts are immature plasma cells, i.e. lymphocytes of the B-cell type that have differentiated into plasmablasts but because of their malignant nature do not differentiate into mature plasma cells but rather proliferate excessively and thereby cause life-threatening disease. In PEL, the proliferating plasmablastoid cells commonly accumulate within body cavities to produce effusions, primarily in the pleural, pericardial, or peritoneal cavities, without forming a contiguous tumor mass. In rare cases of these cavitary forms of PEL, the effusions develop in joints, the epidural space surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and underneath the capsule which forms around breast implants. Less frequently, individuals present with extracavitary primary effusion lymphomas, i.e., solid tumor masses not accompanied by effusions. The extracavitary tumors may develop in lymph nodes, bone, bone marrow, the gastrointestinal tract, skin, spleen, liver, lungs, central nervous system, testes, paranasal sinuses, muscle, and, rarely, inside the vasculature and sinuses of lymph nodes. As their disease progresses, however, individuals with the classical effusion-form of PEL may develop extracavitary tumors and individuals with extracavitary PEL may develop cavitary effusions.
Robert Yarchoan is a medical researcher who played an important role in the development of the first effective drugs for AIDS. He is the Chief of the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch in the NCI and also coordinates HIV/AIDS malignancy research throughout the NCI as director of the Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM).
Patrick S. Moore is an American virologist and epidemiologist who co-discovered together with his wife, Yuan Chang, two different human viruses causing the AIDS-related cancer Kaposi's sarcoma and the skin cancer Merkel cell carcinoma. Moore and Chang have discovered two of the seven known human viruses causing cancer. The couple met while in medical school together and were married in 1989 while they pursued fellowships at different universities.
Yuan Chang is a Taiwanese-born American virologist and pathologist who co-discovered together with her husband, Patrick S. Moore, the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Merkel cell polyomavirus, two of the seven known human oncoviruses.
Interferon regulatory factors (IRF) are proteins which regulate transcription of interferons. Interferon regulatory factors contain a conserved N-terminal region of about 120 amino acids, which folds into a structure that binds specifically to the IRF-element (IRF-E) motifs, which is located upstream of the interferon genes. Some viruses have evolved defense mechanisms that regulate and interfere with IRF functions to escape the host immune system. For instance, the remaining parts of the interferon regulatory factor sequence vary depending on the precise function of the protein. The Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus, KSHV, is a cancer virus that encodes four different IRF-like genes; including vIRF1, which is a transforming oncoprotein that inhibits type 1 interferon activity. In addition, the expression of IRF genes is under epigenetic regulation by promoter DNA methylation.
Flossie Wong-Staal was a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS. From 1990 to 2002, she held the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She was co-founder and, after retiring from UCSD, she became the chief scientific officer of Immusol, which was renamed iTherX Pharmaceuticals in 2007 when it transitioned to a drug development company focused on hepatitis C and continued as chief scientific officer.
Gammaherpesvirinae is a subfamily of viruses in the order Herpesvirales and in the family Herpesviridae. Viruses in Gammaherpesvirinae are distinguished by reproducing at a more variable rate than other subfamilies of Herpesviridae. Mammals serve as natural hosts. There are 43 species in this subfamily, divided among 7 genera with three species unassigned to a genus. Diseases associated with this subfamily include: HHV-4: infectious mononucleosis. HHV-8: Kaposi's sarcoma.
Viral entry is the earliest stage of infection in the viral life cycle, as the virus comes into contact with the host cell and introduces viral material into the cell. The major steps involved in viral entry are shown below. Despite the variation among viruses, there are several shared generalities concerning viral entry.
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a type of cancer that can form masses in the skin, in lymph nodes, in the mouth, or in other organs. The skin lesions are usually painless, purple and may be flat or raised. Lesions can occur singly, multiply in a limited area, or may be widespread. Depending on the sub-type of disease and level of immune suppression, KS may worsen either gradually or quickly. Except for Classical KS where there is generally no immune suppression, KS is caused by a combination of immune suppression and infection by Human herpesvirus 8.
Eva Henriette Gottwein is a virologist and Associate Professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. The main focus of her research is the role of viral miRNAs involved in herpesviral oncogenesis. Gottwein is member of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. Her contributions as a member include the focus on how encoded miRNAs target and function in the human oncogenic herpesvirus Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus known as KSHV.
Karl Heinrich Grünberg was a German otorhinolaryngologist, known for his research on the pathological anatomy of the ear's labyrinth.
Sandra Ciesek is a German physician and virologist. She is the director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt and professor of medical virology at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Her main areas of research include new forms of therapy for hepatitis C and, more recently, the search for drugs against COVID-19.
Karin Orth is a German historian, known for her research into the Nazi concentration camps.
Donald "Don" Emil Ganem is an American physician, virologist, professor emeritus of microbiology and medicine, and former global head of infectious disease research at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR).
Katja Lembke is a German classical archaeologist and Egyptologist and director of the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover.
Heike Klippel is a German film and media studies scholar. She teaches at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, is one of the co-editors of the magazine Frauen und Film and was a founding member of the Kinothek Asta Nielsen e. V.
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