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understandinG the Role of codon usAge biaS in viruS HOst jumP ProcessEs thRough statistical physics

Description du projet

Ce qui pousse les agents pathogènes à changer d’hôte

Une zoonose est une infection d’origine bactérienne, virale ou parasitaire qui se propage aux humains à partir d’autres animaux. La pandémie de SARS-CoV-2 a souligné la nécessité de comprendre l’interaction des agents pathogènes avec les cellules humaines afin de mieux prédire le risque zoonotique de tout agent pathogène émergent. Le projet GRASSHOPPER, financé par l’UE, s’intéressera à la pression induite par l’hôte comme estimation directe de la probabilité de zoonose virale. Les résultats du projet offriront un aperçu fondamental sur les facteurs de changement d’hôtes, créant de nouvelles possibilités pour la conception de vaccins et des stratégies de surveillance des agents pathogènes.

Objectif

Assessing the pandemic risk for viruses of zoonotic origin is extremely hard, but its importance motivates a steadily growing interest. The approaches used so far are hindered by the limited knowledge of the complex interactions of viral genomes with human cells. Within the framework of the global research effort to fill this gap, this action aims at unveiling the relevance of specific genomic features, especially those related to the codon usage bias, in the process of viral host jump. Two objectives are established: (i) identify and quantify the host-induced pressures on viral genomes; (ii) use these pressures to quantify the likelihood of host jumps. To address objective (i), the host-induced pressures will be inferred from large public databases of viral genomes, in the spirit of inverse problems in Statistical Physics. The results will be validated through experiments performed in collaboration with an experimental group at Istitut Pasteur (Paris). The results of objective (i) will be used in objective (ii) to take into account the compatibility of the viral genome with the host-induced pressures in a simple model of host jump. The Applicant will benefit from a secondment at University of Basel where he will acquire useful skills for this challenging objective.
The ambitious aims of this action will be achieved via a strongly interdisciplinary approach, which will build on the existing skills of the Applicant, who specialized in combinatorial optimization problems and Statistical Physics of disordered systems during his PhD, together with the expertise of the Supervisor on inference and Statistical Physics models applied to biology topics. The proposed project is expected to have practical impact on vaccine strain design and virus surveillance strategies. Moreover, it will allow the Applicant to benefit of a unique training scheme, in contact with several top-level institutions in EU, and in close collaboration with internationally recognized researchers.

Champ scientifique (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classe les projets avec EuroSciVoc, une taxonomie multilingue des domaines scientifiques, grâce à un processus semi-automatique basé sur des techniques TLN. Voir: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Coordinateur

ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 184 707,84
Coût total
€ 184 707,84