VIROGENESIS - Virus discovery and epidemic tracing from high throughput metagenomic sequencing
From 01-06-2015 to 31-05-2018
Description
NGS analysis pipelines are rapidly becoming part of the routine repertoire of research, clinical and public health laboratories in the public sector and private industry. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is only one example of the many recent virus discoveries made through analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Yet, only a small part of the several millions of short-length sequence fragments generated by NGS machineries, many of which are expected to be of viral origin, can be analysed with current methods in bioinformatics. Even for well-known (pathogenic) viruses, proper epidemiological analyses are becoming more and more difficult due to the lack of bioinformatics tools that can handle the large and growing size of datasets.
The VIROGENESIS consortium will overcome the most pressing bioinformatics obstacles to making full use of NGS by developing a software platform for end-users with tools underpinned by novel algorithms, models and bioinformatics methods. The speed and flexibility of the tools will make it possible to run analyses on a daily basis for a variety of subjects, including diagnostics, phylogeography, phylodynamics and transmission of drug resistance.
The tools will be piloted and incorporated in the many available bioinformatics pipelines and software programmes used in the field. We will make our tools available in a modular, free and open source software platform that offers opportunities to SME’s to further exploit this market. The VIROGENESIS consortium brings together leading European academic and private small and medium enterprises (SME) bioinformatics developers and virology end-users who initiated this project in response to a clear interest from EMBL, NCBI and the Global Microbial Identifier (GMI) platform.
Team
- Mattia Prosperi, Co-promoter (External)
- Olivier Gascuel, Co-promoter (External)
- Tulio de Oliveira, Co-promoter (External)
- Annelies Kroneman, Co-promoter (External)
- Koen Deforche, Co-promoter (External)
- Jan Aerts, Co-promoter
- Marion Koopmans, Co-promoter (External)
- Annemie Vandamme, Coordinator (External)
Financing
Funding: EU Funding - European Funding
Program/Grant Type: EU PHC - EU PHC Personalising Health and Care
Events
2/09/2024:
PhD defense - Martijn Oldenhof
Machine Learning for Advanced Chemical Analysis and Structure Recognition in Drug Discovery
3/09/2024:
Meet the Jury Igor Tetko on Advanced Machine Learning in Drug Discovery
12/09/2024:
Multimodal analysis of cell-free DNA for sensitive cancer detection in low-coverage and low-sample settings
Seminar by Antoine Passemiers
News
STADIUS Alumni Herman Verrelst – new CEO of Biocartis
08 June 2017
Herman Verrelst, the founder of KU Leuven spin-off Cartagenia, who has been working in Silicon Valley, US for the last few years will be returning to Belgium to follow the steps of Rudi Pauwels as CEO of the Belgian diagnostic company, Biocartis.
Supporting healthcare policymaking via machine learning – batteries included!
29 May 2017
STADIUS takes the lead in the data analytics efforts in an ambitious European Project MIDAS.
Marc Claesen gives an interview about his PhD for the magazine of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences "Geniaal"
10 February 2017
Did you know that in Belgium approximately one third of type 2 diabetes patients are unaware of their condition?
Joos Vandewalle is nieuwe voorzitter KVAB
09 October 2016
Op 5 oktober 2016 heeft de Algemene Vergadering van de Academie KVAB Joos Vandewalle verkozen tot voorzitter van de KVAB.