Project description
Towards universal virus-host mapping tools via ‘ribosome hacking’
Viruses cannot replicate on their own. Outside host cells, they exist as genetic material encapsulated in a protein shell. To replicate, they inject their genetic material into a host cell and hijack its protein synthesis to enable translation of viral mRNA on host ribosomal RNA. Revealing these mechanisms has been challenging. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the VirHoX project aims to address this with an innovative approach for virus-host pairing called VirHo-seq. VirHo-seq involves ligating host ribosomal RNA with viral mRNA during translation via engineered enzymes and identifying virus-host pairings through high-throughput sequencing. It will support the study of emerging pathogens, ecological shifts and climate challenges via universal virus-host mapping tools.
Objective
"High throughput sequencing and metagenomics have deepened our understanding of viruses in nature, yet linking viruses to their hosts remains a challenge, hindering our knowledge and applications. The VirHoX project aims to overcome this by ""hacking"" the ribosome to map virus-host associations. Leveraging a critical moment in the infection cycle of all viruses, the translation of viral genes into proteins by the host cell, we will uncover concealed relationships between viruses and their hosts, providing a universal tool for virus-host pairing. This novel approach, VirHo-seq, involves ligating host ribosomal RNA with viral mRNA during translation in infected cells using engineered enzymes, followed by high throughput sequencing to reveal virus-host pairings. Our interdisciplinary consortium of academic and industrial experts in microbiology, protein engineering, gene editing, viral genomics/transcriptomics and law, will develop and then prepare the commercialisation of VirHo-seq, envisioning legislative and analytical frameworks to maximise its impact. This technology will significantly help tackle current challenges, such as those posed by emerging pathogens, ecological disruptions, and climate change. Our approach aligns with the EIC Work Programme objectives, demonstrating feasibility on model organisms before validating on relevant samples, addressing the ""engineered living materials"" challenge."
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsRNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
- social scienceslaw
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Call for proposal
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
See other projects for this callFunding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
35122 Padova
Italy