Mathias Munschauer from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg has set himself the task of better understanding SARS-CoV‑2 in his research project “COVIDecode”. The European Research Council (ERC) has now awarded him a grant of 1.5 million euros over a period of five years. He is thus the third scientist at HIRI to receive an ERC grant.
The so-called grants of the European Research Council (ERC) are among the most important and prestigious funding instruments in science. The joy about the award is correspondingly great not only in Würzburg, but also in Braunschweig — the HIRI is a joint venture of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) there and the Julius Maximilians University (JMU) in Würzburg.
“It encourages us and speaks for the importance of our work that once again one of our scientists has been awarded this funding. Cutting-edge research at the cutting edge is dependent on sufficient financial resources. I am therefore very pleased that Mathias Munschauer has been awarded one of the coveted ERC Starting Grants.”
- Jörg Vogel, Executive Director of HIRI
“The international reputation of the ERC grants is very high,” adds Dirk Heinz, Scientific Director at the HZI. “We warmly congratulate Mr. Munschauer on this great success, which will enable an expansion of his groundbreaking research on the spread of SARS-CoV‑2 in the human organism.”
How SARS-CoV‑2 takes advantage of the host cell
Mathias Munschauer heads the “LncRNA and Infection Biology” research group at HIRI. At the same time, he holds a junior professorship at JMU. With the help of his project “COVIDecode”, now funded by the ERC, he wants to contribute to a better understanding of SARS-CoV‑2. He is focusing on the molecular interactions between host and pathogen. Like many human viruses, SARS-CoV‑2 uses ribonucleic acids (RNA) as carriers of genetic information. The RNA genetic material of the virus is introduced into the cell, and the cell then translates it into the proteins necessary for the virus to replicate. Research to date has largely focused on the function of these proteins encoded by the virus. However, little is known about viral RNAs and their interaction with the host apparatus during the various stages of the virus life cycle. This is where Munschauer’s research group comes in.
“I would like to use the ERC Starting Grant with my team to systematically investigate the interplay between the RNAs of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus and host cell factors. We want to decipher how these interactions shape the viral RNA life cycle and host defense mechanisms,” says Munschauer. The global COVID-19 pandemic shows how important it is to better understand its pathogen — and also the many emerging variants — at the molecular level. In the long term, this may also create new opportunities for RNA-based antiviral therapies and immunotherapies, the researcher says.
Mathias Munschauer is already the third scientist at HIRI to be awarded an ERC grant by the European Research Council. In 2020, Chase Beisel started his ERC Consolidator Grant-funded project “CRISPR Combo.” Neva Caliskan started work on the research project “T‑FRAME” in 2021, which is funded by an ERC Starting Grant.
