Viral infections affect millions of people every year and cause tremendous human suffering and costs to society

For ~70% of all WHO listed viruses, no treatment is available and the antiviral drugs that do exist must be applied very early to be effective

VIROFIGHT proposes a radically new approach to fight any viral infection, such as COVID19, HIV infection, influenza and hepatitis B

The Virofight Project

FIGHTING VIRAL INFECTIONS WITH ENGULFING NANO-SHELLS

 

Viral infections affect millions of people every year and cause tremendous human suffering and costs to society. For approximately 70% of all WHO listed viruses, no treatment is available and the antiviral drugs that do exist must be applied very early after infection to be effective. The current COVID-19 pandemic is only one such example. The VIROFIGHT consortium proposes a new approach to fight viral infections, to address the lack of broadly applicable antiviral treatments, and to create means for combating emerging pathogens.

VIROFIGHT Partners

Instead of targeting virus-specific proteins or enzymes by small molecules as current antivirals do, the Virofight consortium will construct synthetic nano-shells that can specifically recognize and engulf entire viruses to efficiently neutralize the pathogen.

The biocompatible nano-shells developed by the researchers combine DNA origami, protein design and in-vitro evolution. Their interior will be coated with a layer of virus-specific molecules for strong and specific virus binding. These binding effects will be tested at laboratory scale on a variety of viruses. To achieve this technological target, the interdisciplinary project integrates experts on supramolecular chemistry, molecular nanoengineering, and virology.

The Virofight Consortium

The consortium brings together 6 partners from multiple fields (clinicians, fundamental scientists, scientific SMEs, exploitation and dissemination SME and  management SME), representing 4 different countries.

Viral infections

Health care researchers working in life science laboratory

Current anti-viral drugs

Heart Failure

The Virofight concept

CRUCIAL solution
Elizabeth Jones

„Our mission is to develop and test prototypes of nano-shells that have the principal capacity to neutralize any given virus by engulfing them. We think this may lead to neutralization of the pathogen by occlusion. Different kinds of viruses could be fought using the same platform.”

Prof. Hendrik Dietz, Coordinator
Technical University of Munich

Elizabeth Jones

“Our concept of using neutralizing nano-shells as antiviral drugs may also help to prevent negative effects that may be elicited by antibodies used for virus neutralization.”

Prof. Ulrike Protzer, Virofight partner
Technical University of Munich

Partners

European countries

Project duration (months)

Prof Ulrike Protzer awarded with Bavarian m4 Award

Prof Ulrike Protzer awarded with Bavarian m4 Award

Prof Ulrike Protzer, working at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has received the Bavarian m4 Award for her innovative work on TherVacB, a therapeutic vaccine aimed at curing hepatitis B (HBV). This award, given by the Bavarian Ministry...

VIROFIGHT General Assembly Meeting 2023

VIROFIGHT General Assembly Meeting 2023

For this year’s VIROFIGHT General Assembly we have chosen beautiful Slovenia.
Although Prof. Roman Jerala and his team are based in the capital Ljubiljana, he proposed to hold our annual meeting in Bled, a town near the Austrian border known for its beautiful scenery near mountains and a glacial lake.

VIROFIGHT PUBLISHABLE SUMMARY #2

VIROFIGHT PUBLISHABLE SUMMARY #2

On 30th November 2022 the second VIROFIGHT project period has officially ended. This means the first 2 1/2 years have been completed and the VIROFIGHT consortium had to submit a detailed progress report to our funding organisation, the European Commission. The project...

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