Grant: Project Grant

The influenza (Flu) virus belongs to a group of so-called minus-sense RNA viruses that can cause severe human disease. Influenza is recognized as a widespread global pathogen, while related viruses such as Ebola cause sporadic outbreaks with high mortality rates. Effective treatments are often not available and the impact on public health is immense. Unfortunately, the development of therapeutics has been hampered in part by difficulties to work with the RNA synthesis machinery of these viruses. We developed novel biochemical tools for the study of these enzymes and propose experiments that are designed to identify inhibitors. The goal of this application is to facilitate the development of effective treatments against infection with negative-sense RNA viruses.