Credit: Anna Sominina
I am the Deputy Director of the National Influenza Centre (NIC) in Saint Petersburg, which is part of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. I am also Head of the Influenza and Acute Respiratory Infections Risk Factors Laboratory of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza.
My career as an influenza virologist began in 1963 when, after successfully graduating from the Leningrad Medical Institute, I was enrolled in a postgraduate course at the Virology Department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. The head of the department was an outstanding scientist named Anatoly A. Smorodintsev who had isolated influenza viruses from patients in Leningrad between 1933 and 1936 and substantiated the possibility of attenuation, or altering the virus to make it harmless, to obtain a live influenza vaccine.
Academician Anatoly A. Smorodintsev
Credit: Anna Sominina
In 1967 I completed my Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Immunofluorescent control of the reproduction of myxo- and paramyxoviruses in cell cultures and the organism". The obtained FITC-conjugates proved to be useful in recognition of influenza cases and outbreaks during the 1968-1969 pandemic. Later the methods for their preparation were introduced into the experimental production of reagents in the newly organized All-Union Research Institute of Influenza of the Ministry of Health.
In 1971, our Institute was recognized by WHO as a National Influenza Center, and since then we have been working on improving influenza surveillance through the introduction of new diagnostic methods, the extension of the geography of research, and developing epidemic baselines for incidence and hospitalization for the early detection of epidemics. Since 2010 we have introduced sentinel surveillance.
Laboratory of biotechnology, All-Union Research Institute of Influenza, Leningrad, USSR, 1988
Credit: Anna Sominina
The design and production of appropriate diagnostic reagents was performed in my laboratory using newly developed techniques to analyse the activity of 60 collaborating regional base laboratories (RBLs) on influenza surveillance and to conduct population immunity investigations. Since the beginning of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic rRT-PCR has been introduced widely in NICs and RBLs for influenza and ARI surveillance, as well for SARS-CoV-2 in the last two years.
The Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza was recognized by WHO/Europe as a Reference Laboratory for SARS-CoV-2
Credit: Anna Sominina
The close collaboration with WHO headquarters, the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO Europe) and WHO Collaboration Centres (CCs) for Reference and Research on Influenza in London and Atlanta contributed to the strengthening of influenza surveillance, the standardization of research, intensification of the work on virus isolation, antigenic characterization and early virus sharing with WHO CCs to select the strains for influenza vaccine composition.
Training courses for virologists of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Moldova in the Research Institute of Influenza with the participation of D. Pereyaslov from WHO/Europe
Credit: Anna Sominina
The significant progress of genetic research for influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 has been achieved in recent years in the Laboratory of Molecular Virology headed by Andrey Komissarov. They determined the pathways of SARS-CoV-2 introduction into Russia, identified numerous mutations of SARS-CoV-2 during long-term persistence of the virus in a patient with immunodeficiency, detected that virus in infected cats, and identified a new northwestern genetic variant (AT1).
An important contribution to the antigenic characterization of influenza viruses was made by D.M. Danilenko as a result of cooperation with the WHO Collaborating Center in London and the introduction of the antigenic cartography method to visualize the antigenic relationships of influenza viruses circulating in the country and vaccine strains.
Over the years, we have developed guidelines for influenza surveillance in the Russian Federation, and together with Oleg Kiselev, updated the National Plan for Influenza Pandemic Preparedness. In the past ten years, collaborating with US CDC and WHO/Europe, we have been paying great attention to the training of specialists from Eastern Europe with the great participation of the leading specialists of the NIC and support from WHO/Europe and WHO CCs.
Ms Ann Moen gets acquainted with the conduct of laboratory research within the framework of sentinel surveillance in one of the base laboratories of the NIC
Credit: Anna Sominina
Oleg Kiselev, Mikhail Eropkin and me during a visit to the WHO CC in London together with Alan Hay, John Mc Cauley, Rodney Daniels and Mikhail Matrosovich
Credit: Anna Sominina
Finally, I fully subscribe to the words of Robert Webster, an outstanding scientist and virologist deeply respected by me, that the GISRS network has served as a model of international collaboration, essential for understanding the evolution of influenza viruses on a global level and the ways of new pandemic strains emergence.
It has been an honor for me to participate in GISRS and I am pleased to congratulate everyone on the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of activity and look forward to many more years to come.