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Steven Foung
Email:
Profile: http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Steven_Foung/
Alternate Contact: Academic Appointments
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Professor
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Administrative Appointments
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Associate Chair for Academic Affairs
Stanford University School of Medicine - Pathology
2004
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Postdoctoral Advisees
Karen Ching-Ya Chan
Research Interests
Our research has focused on the early events of hepatitis C virus infection- virus attachment and entry to susceptible cells. The approach is through the generation of human monoclonal antibodies (HMAbs) to the virus envelope proteins with an emphasis on antibodies to conformational epitopes. A large panel of HMAbs has been produced with many broadly reactive to different HCV isolates common in the US and elsewhere. Functional studies showed some inhibiting the interaction of HCV envelope E2 protein with a putative receptor, CD81. Other studies found that these antibodies identify determinants on the surface of a recombinant virus particle (HCVpp) that resembles native infectious virions. The determinants are clustered in three distinct domains that appear to be similar to the antigenic structural and functional domains of other flavivirus envelope proteins. A finding supporting this model is that two of the three domains contain determinants that mediate virus neutralization as tested by the ability to block HCVpp infection in target cells. More recent findings with infectious HCV virions from cell culture confirmed early findings with HCVpp. Our findings support the view that virus entry is mediated by only specific determinants on the virus surface and appear to be restricted to distinct immunogenic domains. This is in contrast for other viruses, such as HIV, where the convention is that neutralization is the result of a critical number of any binding sites being occupied and preventing virus entry through steric hindrance. We intend to pursue studies on expanding this model of the virus envelope, which will be important in linking structure and function.
Publications
- Keck ZY, Machida K, Lai MM, Ball JK, Patel AH, Foung SK "Therapeutic control of hepatitis C virus: the role of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies." Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 2008; 317: 1-38 More »
- Iacob RE, Keck Z, Olson O, Foung SK, Tomer KB "Structural elucidation of critical residues involved in binding of human monoclonal antibodies to hepatitis C virus E2 envelope glycoprotein." Biochim Biophys Acta 2008; More »
- Owsianka AM, Tarr AW, Keck ZY, Li TK, Witteveldt J, Adair R, Foung SK, Ball JK, Patel AH "Broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies to the hepatitis C virus E2 glycoprotein." J Gen Virol 2008; 89: Pt 3: 653-9 More »
- Helle F, Goffard A, Morel V, Duverlie G, McKeating J, Keck ZY, Foung S, Penin F, Dubuisson J, Voisset C "The neutralizing activity of anti-HCV antibodies is modulated by specific glycans on the E2 envelope protein." J Virol 2007; More »
- Meyer K, Ait-Goughoulte M, Keck ZY, Foung S, Ray R "ANTIBODY DEPENDENT ENHANCEMENT OF HEPATITIS C INFECTION." J Virol 2007; More »
75 publications: view full list
