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Project summary
This project will provide an integrated inventory of strains of security-relevant viruses, including their genome sequences, which are used in European and Russian high security laboratories. Leading expert laboratories working on P3 pathogens are also included. Viruses covered include Ebola-, Marburg-, Lassa-, Crimean Congo-, Monkeypox-, Cowpox-, Vaccinia-, Camelpox-, unrecorded strains of wild type polio-, SARS-, avian influenza-, Nipah-, Hanta-, West Nile-, and Yellow Fever virus, and single strains of other viruses. Sequences of a number of these strains are incomplete or have not yet been determined. Collation and completion of sequences shall be accomplished during this project. The project will use the collated genome information to identify forensic genetic signatures of all strains, and to distribute a simple and robust identification method for these signatures to all laboratories of the consortium. This will enable a network of laboratories, which each can identify all relevant virus strains in case of release. The project will also use the collated genome information for each type of virus to deduce functional aspects of virus biology. It shall combine this insight together with literature data and expert experimental knowledge into a set of reports (Scientific Reviews) on future targets in antiviral research, vaccine development, and rapid virus typing. A collation of the above information will be edited as a printed comprehensive Reference Manual on Security-relevant viruses targeted at scientists from other fields and policy makers. It will help identifying intersections in interdisciplinary research and will define futurere search goals in applied virology. All information collected during the project, including the initial strain inventory, sequences, annotations, technical tools, Scientific Reviews, and an inter- and outlinked electronic version of the Reference Manual, shall be accessible through an online RiViGene knowledge/sequence database.
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