Aanpak van de draaglast van respiratoire virussen - Epidemiologie en classificatie van humaan respiratoir syncytieel virus & Analyse van het respiratoir microbioom

Abstract:My PhD project consists of 2 parts: Epidemiology of hRSV on one hand and Virome analysis of the respiratory tract on the other hand. In the first part "Epidemiology of hRSV" the circulation of hRSV in Belgium will be studied. Every child experiences during the first 5 years at least one hRSV infection. In some cases this leads to serious complications which result in hospital submission. In the context of prevention it is important to gain more insights in the dynamics and evolution of the virus throughout the years. Genotyping and phylogenetic analysis of respiratory samples in previous research already showed patterns in the hRSV circulation (Houspie et al., 2013). This PhD project can add extra information and will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the dynamics of hRSV in Belgium. Apart from hRSV, a significant number of other viruses pass by the human respiratory tract from time to time, often causing infection. In comparison with the bacterial and mycotic fraction of the respiratory microbiome, little is known about the viral component of the respiratory tract: the respiratory virome. A more extended knowledge of the viruses circulating in the respiratory tract can help us to gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of several respiratory illnesses. In the second part of my PhD, I will use Next generation sequencing (NGS) to take the first steps in the direction of unraveling the respiratory virome. The focus will be on the respiratory virome of COPD and asthma patients. I will make use of sample preparation techniques that proved their effectivity in the analysis of the gut virome (Conceição-Neto et al., 2015).

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open