Fuel for Viral Infection in Neuronal and Intestinal Environments

About the project

About the Project Many common enteric viruses can also infect cells of the central nervous system (CNS). Such neurotropic viruses infect >50 million people annually, causing encephalitis, meningitis, and other complications. Picornaviruses and astroviruses stand out for their ability to infect cells of both gut and neuronal origins. This project seeks to understand the molecular basis of how enteric viruses can display both neurovirulence and gut-specific replication. A long-standing question regarding the biology of these viruses is: How do viruses replicate in tissues of both gut and brain origin? Identifying the molecular signatures underlying gut- and brain-specific replication is vital for therapeutic development. We recently made fundamental discoveries in this field: the first neurotropic determinants in astroviruses (Ali et al ., 2023) and modulation of translation initiation in enteroviruses that is specific to terminally differentiated cells (O’Connor et al ., 2026). These are examples of molecular regulation in a cell-type-specific manner that set the ground for further research using techniques developed in our group. In this PhD project, you will investigate molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions in neuronal and intestinal cells. You will use cutting-edge technologies, combining molecular virology, genome editing, virus evolution, and organoid infection models, to address fundamental questions about host-pathogen interactions in tissue/cell-specific environments. This project will provide outstanding interdisciplinary training in infection biology, organoid infection models, host-pathogen interactions, as well as highly transferable quantitative and molecular skills.

Research areas