The research program of the Virus Ecology Unit (VEU) is focused at understanding the drivers of virus emergence. Although tremendous progress has been made over the last decade in prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, prophylactic or therapeutic options are not available for most emerging and newly emerging diseases, or would not easily become available to resource poor areas where these outbreaks often occur. Currently, our best hope to prevent or intervene in future outbreaks of most emerging viruses lies in the potential to efficiently block cross-species, zoonotic and human-to-human transmission. The main objectives of the VEU research program aim at the identification of the underlying biotic or abiotic changes in virus-host ecology that allow these emerging viral pathogens to cross the species barrier. Recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of a unilateral focus on field research on one hand and experimental research on the other, we set out to combine the best of both approaches in one research program, where we aim to identify drivers of cross-species transmission from data gathered in the field and model these drivers under experimental conditions in the lab. For a wide variety of novel emerging infectious viruses (e.g., Nipah virus, Ebolavirus, MERS-CoV), no prophylactic or therapeutic intervention strategies are currently available to prevent or contain outbreak events10. In addition, very limited information is available on the route of zoonotic and human-to-human transmission for most of these viruses. Currently, our best hope to prevent or intervene in future outbreaks of these viruses lies in the potential to efficiently block transmission and thereby spread of the outbreak. In order to efficiently establish prevention strategies, detailed knowledge on mechanisms of pathogenicity and transmission (contact transmission, fomite transmission, aerosol transmission, foodborne or vertical transmission) in the context of abiotic (temperature, humidity, airflow) and biotic (routes of transmission, immune status, receptor distribution, amount of shed virus) factors is needed. A more comprehensive understanding of transmission events is likely to make an important contribution to the control of emerging zoonotic infections.
| van Doremalen, Neeltje; Hijazeen, Zaidoun S K; Holloway, Peter et al. (2017) High Prevalence of Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus in Young Dromedary Camels in Jordan. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 17:155-159 |
| Richard, Mathilde; Knauf, Sascha; Lawrence, Philip et al. (2017) Factors determining human-to-human transmissibility of zoonotic pathogens via contact. Curr Opin Virol 22:7-12 |
| van Kampen, Jeroen J A; Tintu, Andrei; Russcher, Henk et al. (2017) Ebola Virus Inactivation by Detergents Is Annulled in Serum. J Infect Dis 216:859-866 |
| Cong, Yu; Lentz, Margaret R; Lara, Abigail et al. (2017) Loss in lung volume and changes in the immune response demonstrate disease progression in African green monkeys infected by small-particle aerosol and intratracheal exposure to Nipah virus. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 11:e0005532 |
| Hallmaier-Wacker, Luisa K; Munster, Vincent J; Knauf, Sascha (2017) Disease reservoirs: from conceptual frameworks to applicable criteria. Emerg Microbes Infect 6:e79 |
| Schountz, Tony; Baker, Michelle L; Butler, John et al. (2017) Immunological Control of Viral Infections in Bats and the Emergence of Viruses Highly Pathogenic to Humans. Front Immunol 8:1098 |
| Falzarano, Darryl; Kamissoko, Badian; de Wit, Emmie et al. (2017) Dromedary camels in northern Mali have high seropositivity to MERS-CoV. One Health 3:41-43 |
| Rosenke, Kyle; Adjemian, Jennifer; Munster, Vincent J et al. (2017) Reply to Colebunders. Clin Infect Dis 64:232 |
| Munster, Vincent J; Wells, Daniel; Lambe, Teresa et al. (2017) Protective efficacy of a novel simian adenovirus vaccine against lethal MERS-CoV challenge in a transgenic human DPP4 mouse model. NPJ Vaccines 2:28 |
| Bibby, Kyle; Fischer, Robert J; Casson, Leonard W et al. (2017) Disinfection of Ebola Virus in Sterilized Municipal Wastewater. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 11:e0005299 |
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