Project description
Studying zoonotic viral threats
Wild animal viruses are a real threat to public health, as demonstrated by Ebola outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about how these viruses function. The EU-funded EVADER project will investigate viral emergence from an evolutionary standpoint. By studying how host range mutants appear and adapt to human cells, it will deliver the most comprehensive landscape of viral human cell infectivity to date. The project will also study the receptor-dependent cell tropism of enveloped RNA viruses – an experimentally tractable process involved in viral emergence. Finally, it will provide important clues about the role of spontaneous mutation in viral emergence and explore the feasibility of clade-level antiviral therapies.
Objective
The emergence of new human pathogenic viruses from animal reservoirs is an increasing concern, but also a poorly understood process. Massive sequencing programs have been recently launched to characterize wildlife viruses, but empirical information on how these viruses function and whether they can potentially infect humans is needed. However, the isolation and culturing of wildlife viruses is too often unfeasible due to technical issues, biosafety concerns, or lack of full-length sequence information. Furthermore, we need to investigate viral emergence from an evolutionary standpoint to better understand how host-range mutants appear and adapt to human cells. To achieve these goals, we will focus on the receptor-dependent cell tropism of enveloped RNA viruses, a central and experimentally tractable process involved in viral emergence. First, we will use high-throughput gene synthesis to create hundreds of pseudoviruses coated with the envelopes of previously uncharacterized wildlife viruses belonging to different families, and we will examine their ability to infect a panel of humans cells from various tissues. This will deliver the most comprehensive landscape of viral human cell infectivity to date. Second, we will use experimental evolution, massive parallel sequencing, and site-directed mutagenesis to explore how viral envelopes diversify, undergo cell tropism shifts, and adapt to human cells. This will provide important clues about the role of spontaneous mutation in viral emergence, and may reveal repeatable evolutionary pathways that could help us improve outbreak predictability. Finally, we will use our experimental results to infer candidate cell receptors for wildlife viruses using machine learning, and to explore the feasibility of broad-range, clade-level antiviral therapies that could be used for combating emerging viruses in the future.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics mutation
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
46010 Valencia
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.