JKU Corona Update Live on April 21, 2020

Urgent questions about the Sars-CoV-2 immune response - a summit meeting of antibody specialists in the JKU Corona Update on April 21.

It sounds like a fairy tale: The family of 35-year-old Michael calls for the donation of blood plasma from recovered Covid patients via the newspaper. Michael, who himself suffered from Covid-19, cannot form antibodies because of an immune disease. Now he is cured thanks to a plasma donation. The responsible Graz infectiologist Prof. Robert Krause (MedUni Graz) is a guest in the JKU Corona Update. Just like the pathophysiologist Prof. Rudolf Valenta from MedUni Vienna, who wants to find out in a broad study whether and who develops a protective immune response after a Sars-CoV-2 infection. Because according to the current state of knowledge, recurring infections with Sars-CoV-2 are by no means excluded!

There has been talk of rapid antibody tests for weeks. The tests available to date are still not convincing because they are not sensitive and specific enough and therefore sometimes falsely indicate an immune defense against Sars-CoV-2. Such false positives can be devastating. A research group with the participation of the Linz hematologist Prof. Clemens Schmitt is working on a new test concept. But otherwise, the immune response to Sars-CoV-2 viruses has hardly been researched. The Viennese immunopathologist Prof. Rudolf Valenta has recently initiated a large-scale study. With the following sentence in yesterday's broadcast from MedUni Vienna, he made you sit up and take notice: "We have to expect that the virus, similar to influenza, is now with us and that recurring infections can occur."

Rector Meinhard Lukas discusses "Urgent questions about the immune response" with Sars-CoV-2 viruses with the following researchers:

  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Robert Krause, University Clinic for Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Clemens Schmitt, University Clinic for Hematology and Internal Oncology, Medical Faculty of the JKU / Kepler University Clinic
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rudolf Valenta, Department of Immunopathology, Institute for Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, MedUni Vienna

Event

Time & date

April 21, 2020

14:00 - 14:30 PM

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Location

Live Videostream auf Youtube