Hamburg, May 31, 2024: The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) "Emerging Viruses: Pathogenesis, Structure, Immunity", which focuses on the precise understanding of viruses, infection processes and immune reactions at the molecular level. The CRC is based at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universität Hamburg and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and is expected to receive a total of 10.8 million euros until 2028. Four research units of the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV) are also involved: Co-speaker of the project Professor Maya Topf, Head of the Department Integrative Virology, Professor Kay Grünewald, Head of the Department Structural Cell Biology of Viruses, Professor Charlotte Uetrecht, Head of the Associated Group Dynamics of Viral Structures and Professor Jens B. Bosse, Head of the Associated Group Quantitative and Molecular Virology.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has presented a list of diseases that have the potential to cause future epidemics. These diseases should be prioritized in the development of diagnostics, medications, and vaccines. Common among the diseases on the current WHO Blueprint Priority List, such as Lassa fever, Ebola virus disease, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), is that they are caused by RNA viruses.

The new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1648 "Emerging Viruses: Pathogenesis, Structure, Immunity," which will receive approximately 10.8 million euros from the German Research Foundation (DFG) over the next four years, aims to research the fundamental structures and mechanisms of these viral infections. The goal is to improve therapeutic and preventive measures and enable faster responses to outbreaks. "We primarily want to investigate how the virus and the host interact, where viruses are vulnerable, and how immune responses can be optimized," explains CRC spokesperson Prof. Dr. Marylyn Addo, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine at UHH and Director of the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development (IIRVD) at UKE.

A total of 26 researchers from UKE and UHH, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Hannover Medical School (MHH), Universität zu Lübeck, University Hospital Basel and LIV will work together to understand these processes at the molecular level more precisely. Advanced techniques from cell and structural biology, computational (systems) biology, immunology, and biochemistry will be utilized.

Prof. Dr. Chris Meier, Professor of Organic Chemistry, one of the co-spokespersons of the research center, who is also an associate member of the Center for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in the Science City Bahrenfeld explains, “On the one hand, the findings aim to improve the targeted treatment of already known viruses; on the other hand, better understanding of the basic mechanisms should facilitate intervention against as-yet unknown pathogens.”

The other co-spokesperson of the CRC initiative is Prof. Dr. Maya Topf, whose lab is located at CSSB. She describes the CRC, which is an important component of the university's research focus "Inflammation, Infection, and Immunity" as unique, stating, "it brings together a multidisciplinary team of basic researchers and clinical scientists, allowing us to utilize the world-class infrastructure in Hamburg and to develop a pipeline that will ensure a rapid and effective response to new viral threats."

Collaborative Research Centers are long-term, interdisciplinary research collaborations that are funded over a maximum of twelve years and three phases. The German Research Foundation (DFG) thus supports excellent and comprehensive collaborative projects in basic research. A special form of CRC is the Transregio, where several universities submit and support the proposal jointly.