Simonas Laurinavičius

Background

Studied biochemistry at Vilnius University and University of Helsinki, in which defended his doctoral thesis about phospholipid distribution in the membranes of bacterial viruses (in 2008). After doctoral studies, I stayed in the field of viruses (would be nicer in the fields of gold) and started to investigate Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) – a virus which causes cancer. After returning to Lithuania in 2011, I continued my scientific career at the Vilnius University Institute of Biotechnology and later at the National Cancer Institute. Besides being a scientist myself, my inner wish is to promote scientific thinking of other people in other professions and situations in life.

<mediaplayer width='640' height='360' image=>http://www.howto-things.com/media/simonas-laurinavicius/simonas_01.mp4</mediaplayer>

Kaposi Sarcoma Herpesvirus

<mediaplayer width='640' height='360' image=>http://www.howto-things.com/media/simonas-laurinavicius/simonas_02.mp4</mediaplayer>

The Idea

<mediaplayer width='640' height='360' image=>http://www.howto-things.com/media/simonas-laurinavicius/simonas_03.mp4</mediaplayer>

The Technology

<mediaplayer width='640' height='360' image=>http://www.howto-things.com/media/simonas-laurinavicius/simonas_04.mp4</mediaplayer>

HOWTO

<mediaplayer width='640' height='360' image=>http://www.howto-things.com/media/simonas-laurinavicius/simonas_05.mp4</mediaplayer>

Symposium HOWTO Things

Title: Studies of an oncogenic Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus

Abstract

Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) is a virus, which causes several cancers – Kaposi’s sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma and Multicentric Castleman’s disease. The life cycle of KSHV is divided into two phases – latent and lytic. The transition from latency to lytic phase is called reactivation. In our study, we aim to investigate the reason, why KSHV is reactivated only in a small part of cancer cells of Kaposi’s sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma. The hypothesis behind this is that the cells, in which KSHV is reactivated, differ by their status of gene splicing. To address this, we use several basic techniques of cell culture, biochemistry, and molecular biology and combine them with physical techniques, such as microscopy, fluorescence, cytometry as well as with bioinformatics methods.