Determinants of hepatitis B virus interspecies restriction factors

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects over 350 million people worldwide and, due to the current inability to cure the infection, requires lifelong treatment. Its narrow host tropism, restricting infection to humans and chimpanzees, has greatly limited our ability to develop new and improved treatment strategies. A better understanding of the HBV life cycle in human and non-human cells could lead to the development of small-animal models to be used in the preclinical evaluation of novel drug candidates. Dr Dorner's research focuses on the identification of non-redundant host factors that are essential for HBV infection in non-human cells, with the aim of creating an immunocompetent small-animal model for HBV.