Francqui-Chair VUB - Academic Year 2022-2023: appointed to - Prof. dr. Johan Neyts , KU Leuven (ANI334)

Johan Neyts is full professor of Virology at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He teaches virology at the medical school and at the school of dentistry. So far, 26 persons obtained their PhD under the mentorship. His lab has a long-standing expertise in the development of antivirals strategies and drugs against emerging and neglected viral infections such as dengue and other flaviviruses, Chikungunya and other alphaviruses, enteroviruses, noroviruses, HEV and rabies and is intensively involved in the search for antiviral strategies against SARS-CoV2. A second focus of the lab is the development of a novel vaccine technology platform technology based on the yellow fever virus vaccine as a vector; this includes among other vaccines against rabies and SARS-CoV2. His team is also developing a technology, the PLLAV (Plasmid Launched Live Attenuated Virus); which allows to rapidly engineer highly thermostable vaccines against multiple viral pathogens. Johan is past-president of the International Society for Antiviral Research (www.isar-icar.com). Four classes of antivirals discovered in his laboratory have been licensed to major pharmaceutical companies (two on HCV, one on dengue and one on rhino/enteroviruses). He was co-founder of KU Leuven spin-off company Okapi Sciences (which was already 5 years later acquired). He received several awards including the Princess Joséphine-Charlotte prize from the FWO, the Prusoff Memorial Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research, the McGuigan Award for Distinguished Work in Drug Discovery (University of Cardiff) and the Career Award Science Communication from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium of Science and Arts. He published ~>585 papers in peer reviewed journals, has given ~290 invited lectures and provides content (~700 interviews) to a larger audience via the lay press

Keywords:Virology

Disciplines:Virology