Awakening a sleeping virus
Client :
Liquid Themes
Awakening a sleeping virus
Project summary
Herpesviruses are an important cause of severe diseases in humans and animals. Following infection herpesviruses persist in the host as latent virus (i.e., the virus enters a sleep mode). Later in life, the virus can awaken (reactivation) to cause recurrent disease. I will investigate how herpesviruses establish latency and how they can reactivate. For this I will be using varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the cause of chickenpox and shingles, as a model.
Impact
More insight into these poorly understood processes will be essential for the development of new therapies that prevent reactivation of VZV and possibly other herpesviruses.
More detailed information
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Werner Ouwendijk
Role Erasmus MC:
PI
Department:
Viroscience
Project website:
Not available
Funding Agency: