Volkswagen Foundation Funds New SHIELD Research Project on the Role of Hormone Metabolism in Viral Infections

The Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV), together with the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation (TiHo), has received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation for the research project SHIELD (Restoring virus-induced disruption of the sex hormone metabolism as a potential treatment strategy to reduce acute and long-term disease burden of pandemic pathogens). The project will start on 1 August 2026 and will run for 24 months, with a total funding of €1,1 million.

The project is led by Prof. Dr. Gülşah Gabriel (LIV) and Prof. Dr. Franziska Richter Assencio (TiHo Hannover). The team is investigating how respiratory viruses influence sex hormone metabolism and whether these changes can be targeted to develop new treatment strategies that reduce both acute and long-term disease outcomes.

A new field: infection endocrinology

In previous work, the researchers showed that SARS-CoV-2 can significantly disrupt sex hormone metabolism, contributing to sex-specific differences in disease severity. A key finding was the virus-driven dysregulation of the enzyme aromatase (CYP19A1), which controls the conversion of testosterone into estradiol.

In clinical cohorts of more than 2,800 patients, these changes were linked to disease severity, particularly in male patients. Preclinical studies further showed that pharmacological inhibition of this pathway can improve recovery after infection and reduce long-term lung damage.

About SHIELD

SHIELD builds on the earlier Volkswagen Foundation–funded FLU-FLAME project.

The new study will explore whether other viruses with pandemic potential—such as highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (H5N1)—also affect hormone metabolism, and whether this mechanism can be used as a therapeutic target.

Continue to the official press release of the Volkswagen Foundation.