We are collaborating with local and international colleagues in the response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These activities include directing the laboratory analysis to assess the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine across clinical trials in efforts that have now facilitated the US FDA and CDC approval of this vaccine for emergency use to vaccinate the American population and international populations.  

We have also:

Spatiotemporal dynamics of innate immune signaling via RIG-I-like receptors.

Esser-Nobis K, Hatfield LD, Gale M Jr.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jun 22:201921861. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1921861117. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32571931

Roby JA, Esser-Nobis K, Dewey-Verstelle EC, Fairgrieve MR, Schwerk J, Lu AY, Soveg FW, Hemann EA, Hatfield LD, Keller BC, Shapiro A, Forero A, Stencel-Baerenwald JE, Savan R, Gale M Jr.

NEWS RELEASE from UW Medicine Newsroom

The Gale Laboratory is actively engaged in the local and national response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease, and is collaborating with our international colleagues to support the global response to control and prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our efforts include conducting antibody testing to determine community exposure frequency to SARS-CoV-2, assessing SARS-CoV-2 infection and virus replication in culture, and defining the innate immune and inflammatory programs that are triggered and regulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection to impart COVID-19 disease outcome.

For updates on local and global COVID-19 status, the following resources are available:

• University of Washington

• Public Health — Seattle & King County

• Washington State Department of Health

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• World Health Organization

Caleb Stokes, MD, PhD. Has been awarded a K08 grant from NIH/NIAID to support the development of his independent research program defining the processes of innate immunity that control virus infection in the central nervous system. Focusing on Zika virus infection in human induced neural progenitor cells, his K08 award work aims to determine how innate immunity directs the outcome Zika virus infection in the developing brain.

This research has implications for disease following zoonotic virus transmission, and importantly points to additional, non-RLR innate immune programs impacting innate immunity against Hantaviruses across hosts.  Link to paper: https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1008483

Data Stories | Understanding STING

See how researcher Kathryn McGuckin Wuertz is trying to understand the relationship between infectious diseases and neurological diseases

Kathryn McGuckin Wuertz is trying to understand the relationship between infectious diseases and neurological diseases. McGuckin Wuertz is a Major in the U.S. Army stationed at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland.

Influenza virus infection causes significant illness and death globally each year despite the existence of a vaccine. Our work has sought to understand the innate immune determinates that are able to regulate the induction of protective adaptive immune responses against influenza in order to inform novel therapeutic and adjuvant strategies. We recently published a study revealing that the innate immune cytokine IFN-lambda acts on DC and is required for generation of optimal CD8 T cell-mediated protection against influenza virus infection in a murine model (DOI:10.1038/s41590-019-0408-z).