Department of Viroscience
Department of Viroscience
Due to rapid demographic changes over the past decades, as well as globalization of travel and trade, new viral disease problems continue to emerge. Often, such infections come from contact with wild or domestic animals (zoonotic diseases), or from arthropod vectors (arboviruses).
Besides these new viral disease challenges, there are also viral disease challenges emerging from changes in the population. These endemic infections in high-risk patients can become problematic in the current patient group and more difficult to treat. This is due to aging and for instance impaired immunity. These kind of infections are currently getting more and more complex.
The Virology Department of The Erasmus University Medical Center is the national and international centre of excellence for multidisciplinary, basic, translational and clinical research of viruses and virus infections at the molecular, patient and population level.
The unique aspect of the Virology Department is its translational approach, with expertise ranging from basic virology to clinical virology, connecting medical and veterinary health, public health and ecology.
By combining these complementary areas of expertise The Virology Department is able to meet today's and tomorrow's societal challenges in diseases caused by common and newly emerging viruses.
Our research is divided into three groups:
- Endemic infections in high risk patients
- Emerging and re-emerging
- In between/cross over group: between common and new infections
