Research at the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases

Adresse

Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4
1205 Geneva
Switzerland

Pr. Isabella Eckerle
Professor
Isabella Eckerle
Physician in charge of the Centre
Professor
Laurent Kaiser
Head of division
Pauline Vetter
Dre
Pauline Vetter
Médecin adjointe, Directrice adjointe du Centre des maladies virales émergentes
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cmve - activités de recherche

The Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases has its own research group focused on "Emerging Viruses", headed by Prof. Isabella Eckerle. It is also affiliated with the University of Geneva, Department of Medicine (DEMED) and physically located at the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine (MIMOL) at the University Medical Center (CMU).

A major research focus of the group is the laboratory-based risk assessment of new and emerging zoonotic viruses by classical molecular and virological methods, using innovative and highly specific cell culture models from human and animal reservoir hosts. Our laboratory is also active in development and validation of diagnostic methods for emerging viruses, as well as transitional research on mucosal immunity to respiratory viruses and clinical studies on viral syndromes.

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we studied viral shedding and virus isolation from clinical samples, created a SARS-CoV-2 biobank, performed molecular and phenotypic characterization and coinfection with other respiratory viruses in primary airway epithelial cells, as well as clinical and immunological studies. We continue to isolate and characterize new SARS-CoV-2 variants and study their phenotypes. Other viruses of interest are respiratory viruses, arboviruses and mpox.

The research group is closely linked to the HUG's virological diagnostics laboratory and Reference Centre for Emerging Viral Infections (CRIVE). The Centre houses the only P3 and P4D facilities in the canton of Geneva, located at the HUG, where our part of our research work is carried out.

We work closely with international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Foundation of Innovative Diagnostics (FIND) and Médecins sans frontières (MSF). We are part of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Epidemic and Pandemic diseases, nominated in 2023 to our Centre. In 2024, our laboratory was appointed as a member of CoViNet, an international expert laboratory network of WHO on SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.

More information on the Pr. Isabella Eckerle-led research group's research funding, initiatives and affiliations can be found below.

Initiatives and Affiliations
  • Co-head WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemic and Pandemic Diseases
  • Co-head CoViNet expert laboratory network on coronaviruses (joint nomination with the Institute of Virology and Immunology, Mittelhäusern)
  • Expert at the Robert-Koch-Institute on pandemic respiratory infections
  • Expert of the subgroup on Immune Escape of SARS-CoV-2 variants of the WHO Technical Advisory Groups on Virus Evolution and Vaccine Composition
  • Expert of the subgroup on lab markers of severity for SARS-CoV-2 variants of the WHO Technical Advisory Groups on Virus Evolution and Vaccine Composition
Current and previous research funds (selection)
  • Swiss National Foundation (SNSF), Project: “Arms race between viral evolution and population immunity – Understanding the impact of antibody pressure on SARS-CoV-2 variants and human endemic coronaviruses.”
  • Moderna, Investigator-sponsored trial: “MIViral - Mucosal Immunity: Influence on Infectious Viral Load: a prospective observational study” (Joint study with the Centre of Vaccinology, PATIM, UNIGE)
  • Carigest Foundation, “Establishment of an in vitro model of polarized primary human airway epithelial cells from children for the study of viral respiratory infections”
  • Horizon 2020, European Union, Project: "European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases - ECRAID-Base".
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) National Research Program (NRP): 78 "Covid-19", Project: "Large-scale serological profiling of SARS-CoV-2 and related human CoVs using high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassays", (Joint project, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL)
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Special call on coronaviruses, Project: "Phenotypic characterization of a biobank of clinical SARS-CoV-2 strains and assessment of the risk of evolution of virus variants",
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Special call on coronaviruses, Project: "Real-time pandemic functional characterization of SARS-CoV-2".(Joint project, Institute of Virology and Immunology, Berne).
  • Collaborating laboratory for the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND): "Support for accurate diagnosis of 2019-nCoV".
  • Fondation privée HUG: Support for rapid response to SARS-CoV-2
  • Fondation Pictet, Project: "COVID-19, the new challenge for the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases - Understanding the transmission and risk factors of COVID-19 in primary cell culture models".
  • Ernst and Lucie Schmidheiny Foundation, Project: "Evaluation of the host switching capacity of newly identified bat filoviruses via a single amino acid change in the spike glycoprotein".

 

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Last update : 02/10/2024