8 projects
Status
Domain
Organization Type
Rapid Development and Initial Preclinical Evaluation of an Effective Candidate Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
The current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is a threat not only to global health but also to the economy since it is dramatically affecting the socioeconomic layers of societies around the planet. Thus, it will be critically important to advance in the production of an effective vaccine, which will be crucial for building up sufficient population-based immunity to efficiently curb the pandemic. While SARS-CoV-2 can infect everyone at all ages, it is mainly the elderly population that is most at risk of a fatal outcome. Elderly persons are charecterized by a declining immune function, known a...
CORONASTEP+ - The value of sewage surveillance to provide new insights on the circulation of SARS...
Infection with SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of the current COVID-19 pandemic, is accompanied by excretion of the virus in the feces. Therefore, we assume that the quantification of SARS CoV-2 in sewage allows the prevalence of infections in the population to be monitored by wastewater-based epidemiology, particularly when clinical trial capacity is limited. The overall objective of the CORONASTEP+ project is to determine to which extent SARS-CoV-2 is present in domestic wastewater and to determine how far wastewater monitoring can be used to track and understand the circulation of SARS-...
Tracking SARS-CoV-2 with Open Banking API
According to the health authorities , due to the highly contagious potential of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 desease), the formal preventive quarantine has been replaced by an isolation strategy early March. However, such strategy cannot last for an undetermined period of time, since there is no concrete date for releasing a vaccine or discovering an effective medicine. The return of people to normal activities will probably happen gradually, but still it will create a new potential peak of cases if not made carefully. Thus, a post-isolation strategy needs to be well planned as the next phase....
Functional characterization of COVID-19 patient gut microbiome
While COVID-19 is mainly considered an airway and lung disease, up to 79% of patients present with gastrointestinal symptoms and recent studies report on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA and particles in stools of infected patients, suggesting that the gastrointestinal (GI) tract may have a more important role in disease pathology or transmission than previously thought. The GI tract is also the site of the dense and diverse microbiome, which has the ability to regulate intestinal and systemic immunity through the conversion of dietary nutrients into bioactive metabolites. Consequently,...
The impact of physical distance restrictions on social mixing patterns and the transmission of COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 has infected over a million cases and resulted in more than 70,000 deaths worldwide by April 6th. Many countries have implemented physical distance restrictions in an attempt to mitigate and slow the spread of the virus. On March 18th, the Luxembourgish government declared a state of emergency closing schools and instructing residents to stay at home while avoiding any social contacts. It is crucial to evaluate whether these measures are sufficient to control the pandemic. Therefore, several countries worldwide including Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Un...
COVID-19 and Neurturin
SARS-Cov-2 is a coronavirus is at the origin of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which poses a global and significant threat to public health worldwide. Although several treatment modalities have been evaluated, none has allowed a therapeutic breakthrough until now. New treatment modalities are therefore urgently needed. We have previously described that neurturin, a member of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor family, expressed not only as a growth factor in the nervous system but also the immune system, displays clear anti-inflammatory properties in mouse asthma models. Indeed,...
A novel high throughput assay to measure plasma neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV2
To date, there is no vaccine and no specific antiviral agent against SARS-CoV-2. Because of hospital saturation, controversial drug efficiency and the risk of medicinal shortage, there is an urgent need for alternative treatment options. Passive (plasmapheresis) and active immunization (vaccine) approaches aim to provide or elicit a protective humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2. This project aims to develop a high throughput assay to measure the neutralizing activity of COVID-19 patients. It will help characterize the antibody response against SARS-CoV-2, and select the sera with hi...
Development of a high performance COVID-19 immunoassay to assess population-based viral immunity
The current situation of lock-down in many countries creates a strong need for large screening efforts in order to assess the immune status of the population and to advice decision makers on measures to relaunch social and economic activites. Due to the need for serological testing on high numbers of individuals over several months, shortages are predictable and a major threat to society. The present proposal aims at the setup of a diagnostic assay using an immunodetection technique and recombinant viral surface proteins expressed and purified in Luxembourg. This assay will allow Luxembourg...
