An interview with Bert Rima
Bert Rima is Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. In this interview, he tells us more about his research, which focused on how genetic modification is an important component in the treatment of viruses.
Tell us more about your research.
Using molecular biological and genetic techniques we have studied the biology of viruses, especially mumps and measles virus and animal viruses such as rinderpest, canine and phocine distemper viruses.
When we started work on measles and mumps virus in Belfast little was known about the protein composition of the virus and its genome. They were known to have an RNA genome of around 15000 nucleotides. In the 1970s and 1980s, then modern technologies such as gel electrophoresis allowed us to establish the approximate protein sizes of the viral proteins.
By the early 1980s, recombinant DNA technology enabled determination of genome sequences from which we could predict protein sequences. This knowledge provided the basis for our understanding of the functions of the proteins and their role in the processes that lead to disease. Knowing the sequences then also led to a description of the geographical and temporal diversity of the virus and this has improved our understanding of the epidemiology of outbreaks.
My current work centres primarily on virus evolution of measles, mumps and human parainfluenza virus 3 in clinical material and persistent infection by these viruses. Measles virus is persistent in some patients and failure to clear the virus can lead to a fatal encephalitis on average eight years after infection with a wild type virus. Vaccination protects people from this disease.
Why is genetic modification an important component in the treatment of viruses?
Our ability to make virus mutants by genetic manipulation has generated knowledge about the precise genetic changes that are important in changing a virulent virus into a vaccine candidate and also to a potential future application. One example is the use of measles virus as a vector for the expression of foreign genes or genes from other viruses so that immunity is obtained not just to measles but also to other viruses such as the Ebola virus.
The ability to modify the viruses has allowed us to make measles mutants that are easily detectable by fluorescence and this has massively increased our ability to study how the viruses cause disease in infection of model animals.
Genome sequencing has also enabled more accurate and sensitive detection. This has been important in the debunking of claims that these viruses are linked to diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and autism.
In 45 years, we have gone from knowing very little about these viruses to knowing how they cause disease and knowing almost everything that is important in controlling and using these viruses for vaccines of the future.
