Viruses - Development of host target based antiviral strategies
Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and dengue virus collectively cause more than 440 million new infections each year. This is in addition to the 650 million people chronically infected with these viruses worldwide. Our group is developing antiviral therapies to combat these and other viruses such as Ebola and influenza.
We are focusing in particular on interfering with the morphogenesis of HCV and HIV, on the host cytokine response to dengue virus infection, the structural biology of viral proteins as well as host cell proteins needed for the formation of infectious viruses, and the development of a mass spectrometry based less-invasive diagnostic test for early stages of liver fibrosis, caused by HCV and other liver diseases.