Oct 04, 2017
New research article in Cell Host & Microbe
In close collaboration with the lab of Ralf Bartenschlager (University of Heidelberg and DKFZ Heidelberg), Chris Lauber und Lars Kaderali published the research article "Deciphering the Origin and Evolution of Hepatitis B Viruses by Means of a Family of Non-enveloped Fish Viruses" in Cell Host & Microbe.
In this study, the researchers discovered dozens of new viruses by mining a large database of sequencing data. The newly discovered viruses bring important insights into the origin of the hepatitis B virus, which affects an estimated 250 million people world-wide and causes hundreds of thousands of deaths yearly.
The time-consuming screening of the sequencing data was done using the high performance computers of the computing center (ZIH) of TU Dresden. Further details about the study can be found under "Selected HPC Projects" on the web site of the ZIH. The virus discovery approach used in the project can be extended to all kinds of viruses to make many more exciting discoveries in the future.