CLINICAL AND APPLIED VIROLOGY

activities

The Clinical and Applied Virology team has long-standing expertise in infectious disease surveillance in humans and animals, capacity building and project management in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Cuba and South-East Asia. Its research studies focus, among others, on the determination of disease etiology, virus characterization, (molecular) epidemiology, transmission chain and outbreak investigations and management, seroprevalence of infectious diseases in different population groups, analysis of risk factors for exposure, vaccination coverage, evaluation of immunization programs and activities, development of new and improvement of existing laboratory protocols.

The group has a high profile within the WHO Laboratory Network, since it operates one of three WHO European Regional Reference Laboratories for Measles and Rubella with a constituency of currently 23 countries including Luxembourg. Major tasks as reference laboratory comprise quality assurance, laboratory method development, improvement and validation as well as training initiatives. Capacity building is also an integrant component of all projects carried out with collaborators in low- and middle-income countries, particularly Laos and Burkina Faso. Most research activities aim to provide scientific evidence for public health decision makers for a better control and management of infectious diseases.

Some of the group’s research projects include: 

• WHO National Reference Laboratory for Measles and Rubella, National Reference Laboratory for avian influenza and Newcastle disease: laboratory diagnosis of cases in Luxembourg, national disease surveillance
• WHO European Regional Reference Laboratory for Measles and Rubella: case and outbreak confirmation, virus characterization and molecular epidemiology, laboratory protocol validation, quality assurance of laboratory testing for WHO National Reference Laboratories in 22 countries, capacity building
• In line with the objectives of the Luxembourg development cooperation, the multiannual “Microbiology for Development” and “Luxembourg-Laos Partnership for Research and Capacity Building in Infectious Disease Surveillance (PaReCIDS)” projects combine applied infectious disease research and development of laboratory and research capacities in partner countries
• Surveillance and characterization of important livestock and zoonotic viruses in Luxembourg, under a One Health approach, in collaboration with the Administration des Services vétérinaires

In addition, diverse funding sources (including FNR or EFSA) support other specific projects on infectious diseases.