Welcome to the VirEOS website
VirEOS is a research consortium created in the framework of the “Excellence of Science” (EOS) joint initiative of FWO and FNRS, the belgian basic science funding agencies.
The VirEOS consortium combines leading belgian research teams working on viruses and molecular interactions.
The VirEOS project aims at filling a remaining knowledge gap: the largely understudied interplay of viral replication and fundamental aspects of host RNA metabolism.
Given the COVID-19 emergency, on top of basic research, groups in the VirEOS consortium promptly reacted to tackle this new thread and started to develop vaccines and novel molecules to contain SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The VirEOS consortium combines leading belgian research teams working on viruses and molecular interactions.
The VirEOS project aims at filling a remaining knowledge gap: the largely understudied interplay of viral replication and fundamental aspects of host RNA metabolism.
Given the COVID-19 emergency, on top of basic research, groups in the VirEOS consortium promptly reacted to tackle this new thread and started to develop vaccines and novel molecules to contain SARS-CoV-2 infection.
VirEOS research project
The objective of our VirEOS consortium is to analyze the interplay between RNA, viruses and immune responses, starting from three overarching working hypotheses.
- Viral proteins can perturb host cell factors involved in cellular RNA homeostasis and in RNA sensing (WP1&2).
- Viral RNA can act as a full player to hijack cellular components, including proteins, to modulate cell responses (WP3).
- Viruses hijack the cellular RNA-sensing machinery to modulate antiviral immune responses, orientate their tropism and promote their persistence (WP4).
Research highlight
A new method was developed by a collaborative team in the VirEOS consortium, for high throughput screening of RNA-protein interactions.
Publication :
The Development of RNA-KISS, a Mammalian Three-Hybrid Method to Detect RNA–Protein Interactions in Living Mammalian Cells.
Irma Lemmens, Sander Jansen, Steffi de Rouck, Anne-Sophie de Smet, Dieter Defever, Johan Neyts, Kai Dallmeier, and Jan Tavernier.
Journal of Proteome Research 2020 19 (7), 2529-2538 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00068).
Announcement/News
COVID19 emergency !
Given their expertise in Virology, members of the consortium urgently reoriented part of their activities to deal with the Covid Emergency.
- by developing anti-SARS-CoV-2 single chain Neutralizing antibodies.
Picture: Wrapp et al., 2020, Cell 181, 1004–1015. - by developing a promising SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
(see ref Sanchez Felipe et al., bioRxiv 2020.07.08.193045; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.193045). - by studying how the virus enters into target cells.
- by developing SARS-CoV-2 detection tests and helping to test the population.