ERC Consolidator Grant · 2020
Viruses are ubiquitous, obligate intracellular parasites that have had a pervasive influence on the evolutionary history of life. Despite being extensively studied due to their role in disease, very little is known about their long-term evolution, since they do not form a geological fossil record. The new field of paleovirology is the study of ancient viruses, which in the genomic age has been facilitated by discoveries of endogenous viral elements (EVEs). EVEs are the remnants of viruses that have heritably integrated into the genomes of their hosts and we were the first to discover that viruses of all genome types can endogenise. This genomic fossil record contains information about…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.