Prof. Dr. Sebastian Böcker
Professor of Bioinformatics
Institute for Computer Science
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Decoding tools for virus research
In the face of increasing outbreaks and pandemics caused by newly emerging and known viruses, such as Ebola, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2, there is a pressing global need for a deeper understanding of viral genomes, morphologies, adaptations, evolution, and replication mechanisms. To address this need, the VirusREvolution initiative aims to develop specialized bioinformatic and photonic tools dedicated to viruses, bridging the gap in virus identification, description, regulation, interaction, and visualization. This represents a significant advancement in virus research, made possible by the collaboration of computational, photonic, and experimental researchers.
Research Goals
VirusREvolution develops specialized bioinformatic and photonic tools for viruses, addressing the gaps in virus research.
Project Areas
VirusREvolution is divided into three projects areas representing different areas of tool developemnt.
Principal Investigators
VirusREvolution brings together the expertise of cutting-edge computational, photonic, and experimental researchers.
Spokesperson
Prof. Dr. Manja Marz
Professor for RNA Bioinformatics & High-Throughput Analysis
Institute for Computer Science
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Leutragraben 1, 07743 Jena
Phone: +49 3641 946480
Email: manja@uni-jena.de
Coordination team
Why do we need virus-specific tools
Esteban Domingo
Vice-president of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences
"The phylogenetic position of a given virus isolate does not necessarily inform its biological properties. That is, one may have two phylogenetically very closely related isolates and one be virulent and the other non-pathogenic, and the difference between the two might be one or a few mutations. Accurate phylogenies including multiple features are key to identify the relationships between virus isolates."
Simon Roux
Head for Viral Genomics at Joint Genome Institute
"Current virus annotation tools are not sufficient enough to robustly associate gene content and replication strategy because of the high number of uncharacterised and unannotated genes. We would benefit greatly from tools with accurate annotation for better prediction of virus host range, infection strategy, and potential interaction with host cell machinery."
Matthew Sullivan
Professor of Microbiology and Director, Center of Microbiome Science at Ohio State University
"We have finally developed approaches to survey and organise virus sequence space – now we are poised to study how virus populations change over space and time. Moving forward, we now need tools and approaches to assess within population variation (which we term micro-diversity) to identify genes that could drive speciation and niche differentiation in natural communities."
