COVID-19, HIV, Ebola, or monkeypox: Viruses can mutate rapidly and continually present researchers with new challenges. A new research consortium aims to help detect them more quickly and understand them better.
The University of Leipzig is also participating in this effort. In the new Collaborative Research Center “VirusREvolution,” researchers are developing digital tools designed to support virus research.
Three departments are collaborating
The Collaborative Research Center is coordinated by the University of Jena. The spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Manja Marz. She once conducted research in the lab of Prof. Dr. Peter Stadler, who now teaches bioinformatics at the University of Leipzig. “Above all, we’re developing computer-based tools to support virologists in their work,” she explains.
That is precisely the goal of the research consortium. Virology, bioinformatics, and photonics – technologies that work with light – are intended to work together to help better understand the genetic material, structure, and development of viruses, as well as their interaction with the body’s cells.
