B2.

B2. Biosensors of virus infection

Never before have emerging viral pathogens had such an advantage for massive and rapid spreading as currently provided by the high density of human populations. Coupled with social, climate and environmental changes this has hugely increased the probabilities of unexpected outbreaks (SARS, Chikungunya, MERS‐CoV, Ebola are recent examples); as a result, the time available to counteract outbreaks before they get out of control is considerably reduced. Classical methods for monitoring virus infections (virus isolation and cultivation) are not sensitive enough while modern methods such as next generation sequencing (NGS) suffer from an inability to distinguish replicating (infectious) viruses from inactive sequences present in environment.

Group 6 has succeeded in reconstruction of replication systems of different viruses from their basic components and developed approaches, which allows design of stable cell lines carrying synthetic reporters responsive to infection either with one specific virus or by group of related viruses (unpublished results). This technology will be expanded to generate a panel of cells responsive to infection with (a) alphaviruses (b) flaviviruses (c) coronaviruses or (d) picornaviruses. These cell lines can be used to detect viruses from medical and environmental (arthropods, wild mammal) samples and facilitate identification of viral pathogens, including currently unknown members of these virus groups. Furthermore, reporter cells represent useful tools for assaying of antiviral effects of different chemicals (assistance from Groups 1 and 7) and for analysis of efficacy of antiviral vaccines.