On Thursday, April 18, the Hampden-Sydney College Biology Department Seminar Series welcome Dr. Thomas Braciale, Director of the Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research at the University of Virginia.  Dr. Braciale is one of the world’s leading experts in viral immunology, and the current focus of his laboratory is to understand collectively the induction of immune responses to influenza virus infection, the immune-mediated pathology that results from both innate and adaptive immunity to different strains of this virus, and the regulation of inflammation by adaptive immune cells that allows tissue recovery following virus clearance.  In his seminar, Dr. Braciale spoke in depth about the 2009 H1N1 “Swine” flu outbreak, relating this pandemic both to previous influenza pandemics throughout history and to the current highly pathogenic H7N9 avian influenza virus that has just struck China in the last two weeks.  H-SC faculty and students learned a great deal and were lucky to hear such a timely talk from one of the world’s leading experts on influenza virus!