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Contact Details

Phone
+64 3 479 9028
Email
vernon.ward@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor
Department
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Qualifications
BSc(Hons) PhD(Otago)
Research summary
Viral pathogenesis, Molecular virology, Applied immunology, Host pathogen interactions

Research

Viruses are well known for their ability to cause disease, but the diversity of virus structure and replication offers many opportunities to exploit virus particles, their structure and their replication for beneficial purposes. My current research involves both the study of pathogenic viruses and the exploitation of virus properties for beneficial purposes.

For more detail see:
micro.otago.ac.nz/our-people/vernon-ward/

Publications

Clifford, S. M., Edwards, M. J., Krittaphol, W., Walker, G. F., Harris, L. D., & Ward, V. K. (2026). Nanoparticles for antiviral nucleotide analogs: approaches and analytical challenges. Journal of Virology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01758-25 Journal - Research Other

McSweeney, A. M., Clifford, S. M., Wood, J. M., Torres, D. G., Evans, G. B., Harris, L. D., Kleffmann, T., & Ward, V. K. (2026). Effects of RNA polymerase inhibitors on nucleotidylylation of human norovirus VPg. Antiviral Research, 252, 106470. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2026.106470 Journal - Research Article

Wood, J. M., Torres, D. G., Landaeta Aponte, R. A., Deshpande, S., McSweeney, A. M., Shrestha, R., … Ward, V. K., & Harris, L. D. (2026). Scalable synthesis and biological evaluation of 3'-Deoxy-3',4'-didehydronucleoside triphosphates. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 91, 6744-6750. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.6c00483 Journal - Research Article

Ward, V. K., McKenzie-Goldsmith, G. M., Edwards, M. J., Young, V. L., Kleffmann, T., Stubbing, L. A., … Brimble, M. A. (2026). The MNV-1 protease–polymerase precursor cleaves a novel site in the NS1-2 protein. Journal of General Virology, 107, 002263. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.002263 Journal - Research Article

Brimble, M. A., Stubbing, L. A., Hermant, Y. O., Yang, S.-H., Hubert, J. G., Pearl, E. S., McSweeney, A. M., Young, V. L., Campbell, A. C., Opel-Reading, H. K., McKenzie-Goldsmith, G. M., Putha, L., Mortuza, R., … Krause, K. L., & Ward, V. K. (2026). Broad-spectrum peptidomimetic inhibitors of norovirus and coronavirus 3C-like proteases. ACS Infectious Diseases, 12(1), 162-175. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.5c00680 Journal - Research Article

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