Kai Xu
Ohio State University, OH·Biophysics
Some viruses jump from animals to people and kill a large share of those they infect. Hendra virus and Nipah virus, the founding members of the henipavirus group, have caused repeated outbreaks with fatality rates reaching 75 percent, infect an unusually wide range of animal species, and spread by several routes, which is why they are handled only in the highest-containment laboratories and treated as priority pathogens.
- Fields
Biophysics
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
- Topics
henipavirus
Nipah virus
Hendra virus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2028
What they work on
- Determine structures of soluble, stabilized G and F glycoprotein ectodomains from emerging henipaviruses, including the bat-borne Cedar virus and Angavokely virus, to capture the full tetrameric G and the fragile prefusion F.
- Use structure-based functional analyses to define how the G glycoprotein mediates receptor attachment and how the F glycoprotein drives membrane fusion during henipavirus entry.
- Define the antigenicity of emerging henipavirus glycoproteins using neutralizing murine antibodies and camelid single-domain antibodies, determining their epitopes and mechanisms of neutralization.
- Combine structural and antibody data to map sites of vulnerability on both G and F across antigenically diverse henipaviruses, to inform glycoprotein-based vaccine and immunotherapeutic design.
More about the research
Six more henipaviruses have been reported in recent years, and antibodies raised against Nipah and Hendra barely recognize them. This project asks what the surface proteins of these newly found viruses look like, how they work, and where protective antibodies can grab hold.
Why it matters
Henipaviruses spread from animals to humans and between humans, and no broadly effective vaccine or treatment exists for the newly emerging members. Mapping the vulnerable sites on their two surface proteins and clarifying how those proteins drive cell entry could guide the design of vaccines and antibody therapies ready for future spillover events, benefiting communities in regions where outbreaks occur.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Benhur Lee
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Define which human cell types the bat-derived Yunnan henipaviruses 1 and 2 infect, using primary cells and organoids, and correlate infection with levels of ephrin-A proteins — the cell-surface molecules these viruses use to enter, unlike the ephrin-B2/B3 used by Nipah virus.
Stefan Oliver
Stanford University, CA·Biophysics
Determine the near-atomic structure of the varicella-zoster virus gB/gH-gL complex, the machinery that fuses viral and cell membranes, using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy on complexes kept in their native lipid environment.
David Veesler
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how broadly serum antibodies from nonhuman primates immunized with nanoparticle vaccines co-displaying multiple receptor-binding-domain and spike antigens bind and neutralize betacoronaviruses.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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