< Back to previous page

Project

The assessment of virome composition and dynamic in blood transfusion setting

Blood safety is an essential element of public health and a serious concern of blood transfusion organizations. Recent advanced sequencing technologies unraveled that the blood conveys a number of commensal and unknown viruses, known as the virome. These viral communities have been linked to the human health. The homeostatic environment can be disturbed by intra- and inter-host translocation of virome elements or interventions like vaccination, medication and organ transplantation. Furthermore, a disbalance of the virome cause a wide variety of health problems. Through blood transfusion, virome elements of blood donors are transferred to recipients and interact with the existing virome population. The impact of these viruses on the blood recipient’s immune system is a critical question that is still unanswered. Armed with an NGS technology specifically developed for blood virome research, we aim at identifying and characterizing the virome in blood donors and recipients. In this project, we will collect blood samples from the donated blood products and the blood recipients, before and after blood transfusion. The main focus will be on studying the interactions between the virome of donated blood products and the existing viral community in the blood recipients. By using state-of-the-art NGS technologies and bioinformatic approaches, we have the ambition to unravel the role of the virome in blood transfusion and create a new baseline for targeted diagnostics and preventive measures.
Date:1 Oct 2020 →  Today
Keywords:Blood virome, interaction, transfusion, NGS, viruses, infection, pathogen, donor, recipient
Disciplines:Virology, Clinical hematology, Hematology not elsewhere classified, Infectious diseases, Microbiome