The focus of the clinical virology team is to develop and further improve diagnostic tools for detection and quantification of viral infections, including next-generation sequencing approaches in the field of “pandemic preparedness”. Our current work in the field involves many collaborators, the establishment of biobanks and the use of clinical and environmental specimens in our investigations. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, recent work has focused on establishing qPCR assays, targeted Spike mutation analysis and whole genome Illumina sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. Ongoing work involves whole genome sequencing of several viruses with pandemic and outbreak potential, including both respiratory and blood-borne viruses.

The main research interest of our group is to contribute to understand (1) the implications of genetic diversity and molecular properties of RNA viruses and the role this has in immunopathogenesis and disease progression and clearance, (2) the development of drug resistance with a special focus of HIV drug resistance and (3) the viral epidemiology of HIV, hepatitis C virus and other RNA viruses. A substantial part of our research efforts is devoted to public health with a focus on prevention, control and surveillance of HIV and other communicable diseases. We work together with colleagues in multi-disciplinary teams mainly in two sub-Saharan countries, Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau.