The Human Virome in Respiratory and Skin Disorders

The human virome, the collection of eukaryotic and prokaryotic viruses living in and on our body, is an integral but underappreciated part of the microbiome. Viruses interact with the immune system and other members of the microbiome to shape human health and disease. However, technical challenges remain for performing comprehensive virome analysis on low-biomass clinical samples. The objectives of this project are the development of sensitive virome detection and analysis pipelines, introducing minimal bias, for skin and sputum samples, two challenging sample types with low biomass. These virome analysis pipelines will build upon the existing NetoVIR method established at the Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, combining the purification of viral particles, Illumina sequencing, and bioinformatics analysis. These pipelines will be applied to study the virome component in samples from clinical studies. Integrating the virome component into larger epidemiology studies will help to increase our understanding of disease etiology for specific skin and respiratory disorders. A more holistic view on the human microbiome, including a detailed analysis of its virome component, should support a better definition of vaccine targets, discovery of new biomarkers and/or development of personalized vaccine strategies.