ERC Advanced Grant · 2021
Traitor-virus-guided discovery of antiviral factors
Viruses may seem smart since they rapidly develop new skills to spread in humans. However, they are actually just masters of trial and error. Their short generation time, enormous reproduction and high variability allows viruses to try countless variations. A few of these will enhance viral spread and, in the worst case, enable viral pandemics. It is conceivable that viruses evolve to counteract those defence mechanisms that would otherwise be most effective against them. Usually, it is hard to assess why specific changes are advantageous. This is especially true for adaptations enabling viral pathogens to counteract innate antiviral factors because these cellular proteins and their viral…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.