Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INITIATE (INnate-ImmunomeTabolIsm as Antiviral TargEt)
Période du rapport: 2021-05-01 au 2023-04-30
As illustrated by the COVID19 pandemic, viral outbreaks and epidemics continue to impose high morbidity and mortality burdens, emphasizing the urgent need for the continuous improvement and innovation of our antiviral strategies. Pivotal for effective anti-viral defences is the innate immune response, a research field now being revolutionized since the recognition that metabolic re-programming during immune cell activation has a major impact on host antiviral and inflammatory response to virus infections.
The development of therapeutic strategies targeted to antiviral immunometabolism pathways represents an exciting underexplored research front. Our consortium INITIATE brought together a highly complementary team of world leaders, both academic and corporate, with track records in the historically distinct research fields of virology, innate immunology and metabolism. These partners have combined their strengths to discover novel regulatory mechanisms governing antiviral immunometabolism pathways.
The overarching objective of INITIATE was to train a new generation of creative, innovative and entrepreneurial researchers who will be at the forefront of the emerging research field of ‘antiviral immunometabolism’ and will be able to face current and future challenges in viral diseases.
The INITIATE training programme empowered its 15 early-stage researchers with appropriate scientific and transferable skills. This was facilitated through related and interdependent research projects, interdisciplinary and intersectoral secondments, supplemented with local and network-wide training activities. Next to scientific training activities, the programme included transferable skill workshops devoted to academia/industry collaboration, entrepreneurship, dissemination and public engagement, as well as maintenance of a successful research environment and future career prospects. Through this training programme, all ESRs obtained or will obtain their PhD. The INITIATE training programme delivered a new generation of researchers who will be highly attractive to European life sciences industry and academia on the exciting unexplored research frontier of antiviral immunometabolism.
The development of therapeutic strategies targeted to antiviral immunometabolism pathways represents an exciting underexplored research front. Our consortium INITIATE brought together a highly complementary team of world leaders, both academic and corporate, with track records in the historically distinct research fields of virology, innate immunology and metabolism. These partners have combined their strengths to discover novel regulatory mechanisms governing antiviral immunometabolism pathways.
The overarching objective of INITIATE was to train a new generation of creative, innovative and entrepreneurial researchers who will be at the forefront of the emerging research field of ‘antiviral immunometabolism’ and will be able to face current and future challenges in viral diseases.
The INITIATE training programme empowered its 15 early-stage researchers with appropriate scientific and transferable skills. This was facilitated through related and interdependent research projects, interdisciplinary and intersectoral secondments, supplemented with local and network-wide training activities. Next to scientific training activities, the programme included transferable skill workshops devoted to academia/industry collaboration, entrepreneurship, dissemination and public engagement, as well as maintenance of a successful research environment and future career prospects. Through this training programme, all ESRs obtained or will obtain their PhD. The INITIATE training programme delivered a new generation of researchers who will be highly attractive to European life sciences industry and academia on the exciting unexplored research frontier of antiviral immunometabolism.
The INITIATE training-by-Research program, through the individual research projects and secondment activities, were complemented with training–by-education offered as part of local graduate programmes and training sessions at the network meetings. Those trainings were provided by participating partners and through lectures of renowned scientists from within and outside the consortium. The ESRs received training on the Academia/Industry interface through secondments, visits and lectures at the premises of the industrial partners, as well as through their Know projects. In these projects the ESRs studied examples of IPR, explored the possibilities for patent application, further exploitation of scientific results, prepared and presented a business plan. The training-by-research program supervised by an interdisciplinary and intersectoral supervisory team. The research projects in the program yielded 34 manuscripts (published or under preparation) and prospective graduation dates for all ESRs spanning from fall 2023 till spring 2025.
The communications strategy of INITIATE aimed to promote the programme and its findings beyond the consortium, and to enhance public awareness of the value of research. The core topics under investigation in the programme are now of major public interested and relevance because of COVID-19. The pandemic has offered unprecedented opportunities for engaging in public understanding of the research now perceived to be directly relevant. To equip the ESRs with the expertise for these types of activities, they received extensive training in ‘communication to the lay-audience”. The online workshops on communication have resulted in ESR blogs, a publication in Virus Research and in organizing European Researcher’s Night live stream events. In addition, many of the INITIATE PIs, actively involved in COVID-19 related research, were regularly asked for scientific opinions on various aspects of the pandemic and to contribute to discussions in mass media: newspapers, TV and radio.
The final meeting of INITATE was held as a satellite meeting with the Cell Symposium: “Viruses in health and disease”. During this symposium the ESRs had the opportunity to present posters on their research projects to all invited speakers, stakeholders, and guests. The INITIATE project poster was presented during the poster sessions. This provided an opportunity for the project coordinator to explain the importance of an innovative training network, and its contribution to the training of a new generation of young researchers in the emerging field of antiviral immunometabolism to a wide audience of stakeholders.
Overall, the INITIATE training program, despite being hampered by the COVID-19 related restrictions, delivered a new generation of innovative and entrepreneurial scientists with leadership potential, and excellent career perspectives in the field of antiviral immunometabolism research and beyond.
The communications strategy of INITIATE aimed to promote the programme and its findings beyond the consortium, and to enhance public awareness of the value of research. The core topics under investigation in the programme are now of major public interested and relevance because of COVID-19. The pandemic has offered unprecedented opportunities for engaging in public understanding of the research now perceived to be directly relevant. To equip the ESRs with the expertise for these types of activities, they received extensive training in ‘communication to the lay-audience”. The online workshops on communication have resulted in ESR blogs, a publication in Virus Research and in organizing European Researcher’s Night live stream events. In addition, many of the INITIATE PIs, actively involved in COVID-19 related research, were regularly asked for scientific opinions on various aspects of the pandemic and to contribute to discussions in mass media: newspapers, TV and radio.
The final meeting of INITATE was held as a satellite meeting with the Cell Symposium: “Viruses in health and disease”. During this symposium the ESRs had the opportunity to present posters on their research projects to all invited speakers, stakeholders, and guests. The INITIATE project poster was presented during the poster sessions. This provided an opportunity for the project coordinator to explain the importance of an innovative training network, and its contribution to the training of a new generation of young researchers in the emerging field of antiviral immunometabolism to a wide audience of stakeholders.
Overall, the INITIATE training program, despite being hampered by the COVID-19 related restrictions, delivered a new generation of innovative and entrepreneurial scientists with leadership potential, and excellent career perspectives in the field of antiviral immunometabolism research and beyond.
SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a new respiratory pathogen early in 2020 leading to the COVID-19 global pandemic, emphasizing the need for training of researchers with the proper expertise to combat this – and future- outbreaks of emerging viruses. It was thus imperative to apply current knowledge on the innate immune and metabolic response to RNA viruses to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, in order to more fully understand host immune interactions for this virus and aiding to the so much needed knowledge for this newly emerging virus. The focus of INITIATE on RNA viruses and immunometabolic pathways, together with the expertise within the network on coronaviruses, and the availability of tools to research the virus, provided an ideal training opportunity for some of the ESRs to work on SARS-CoV-2 as part of their current project, thus bringing their skill set and knowledge to the cutting edge of current RNA virus-host immune interactions.
The programme had a great impact on the researchers’ careers. The very balanced consortium –academic, clinical, and industrial – resulted in an excellent exposure of all ESRs to a multidisciplinary and intersectoral environment.
The INITIATE ESRs, originating from France, Greece, Italy, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary and India, were employed at institutes in six different European countries. Through the secondments, network meetings, social events and collaboration for the Know projects the ESRs became very well connected. This network of international scientist results in the establishment of a durable training environment between partners and institutes all over Europe. Through the collaboration of ESRs and PIs from institutes from different countries in Europe, long lasting relationships were build which will undoubtedly extend beyond the duration of the action. The broad and interdisciplinary trainings within the INITIATE program provided the ESRs with skills and motivation to not only work in the academic field but also industrial or other fields. Those career choices will strengthen Europe’s position in research and innovation in the field of antiviral and immunotherapies, which will accelerate Europe’s attractiveness as a leading research destination.
The programme had a great impact on the researchers’ careers. The very balanced consortium –academic, clinical, and industrial – resulted in an excellent exposure of all ESRs to a multidisciplinary and intersectoral environment.
The INITIATE ESRs, originating from France, Greece, Italy, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary and India, were employed at institutes in six different European countries. Through the secondments, network meetings, social events and collaboration for the Know projects the ESRs became very well connected. This network of international scientist results in the establishment of a durable training environment between partners and institutes all over Europe. Through the collaboration of ESRs and PIs from institutes from different countries in Europe, long lasting relationships were build which will undoubtedly extend beyond the duration of the action. The broad and interdisciplinary trainings within the INITIATE program provided the ESRs with skills and motivation to not only work in the academic field but also industrial or other fields. Those career choices will strengthen Europe’s position in research and innovation in the field of antiviral and immunotherapies, which will accelerate Europe’s attractiveness as a leading research destination.