PhD student gains funding for pilot project

Within this 12-month project with the title “Mutations in the viral polymerase of HPIAV determine the production of aberrant viral RNA species that trigger overshooting immune responses” the young investigators will implement their own first research project.
The interdisciplinary team aims to establish a new method to selectively purify vRNA from total cell lysates by combining self-designed primers with commercially available magnetic beads to capture aberrant and full-length vRNA. The composition of vRNAs will be analyzed using Illumina RNA sequencing to determine the complete landscape of short vRNAs that are generated by recombinant viruses harboring amino acid signatures derived from HPAIV that confer an enhanced immune stimulatory potential in human cells. In addition, they will test whether the purified vRNAs have an immune stimulatory effect in cell culture and finally, identify the responsible host RNA receptor as well as the downstream signaling cascades that are activated.