ULiège, CHU - Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium
" Nous faisons face à une pandémie d'infection COVID-19. Ce virus pathogène est source de complications pulmonaires aggravant fortement le pronostic de nos patients. De nos jours, tant les mécanismes physiopathologiques en cause que les marqueurs de sévérité de l'atteinte restent indéterminés. Il apparaît donc comme urgent de pouvoir identifier des marqueurs diagnostiques, pronostiques et prédictifs pour nos patients. Dans ce contexte, plusieurs voies rapidement explorables nous apparaissent comme critiques. Le but final de cette étude est de contribuer à une prise en charge plus ciblée des patients porteurs d'une infection au SRAS-Cov-2. "
Funding: Fonds Léon Frederic
Publication References: Dix publications représentatives : 1) Prevention of murine radiogenic thymic lymphomas by tumor necrosis factor or by marrow grafting. HUMBLET C, GREIMERS R, DELVENNE P, DEMAN J, BONIVER J, DEFRESNE MP. J Natl Cancer Inst 88 (1996), 824-831. IF...

Read more: Ph. DELVENNE, FNRS Research Director / Chef de service Anatomie pathologique - J. GUIOT, Chef de...

GSK - Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium
" Support covid international: https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/resource-centre/our-contribution-to-the-fight-against-2019-ncov/ Support covid en Belgique: https://be.gsk.com/media/915368/cp-gsk-contributions-majeures-de-gsk-a-la-lutte-contre-le-covid-19.pdf NA NA "
Funding: NA
Contact: Philippe Denoel - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UCLouvain - UNamur
" One of the key determining factors in viral infection is the entry of the virus into the host cells. Different CoVs including MHV, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have been consistently demonstrated to engage the endocytic pathway as the main mechanism for viral entry into a variety types of host cells. At present, the entry mechanisms and the implication of the endocytic pathway of the new emerging SARS-CoV-2 have not been reported directly. It is known that SARS-CoV-2 utilizes the same receptor of SARS-CoV, which is angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2) for viral entry into the host cells. Since SARS-CoV-2 also binds to the same ACE2 receptor as SARS-CoV it is highly possible that this new CoV utilizes the same endocytic pathway for entry into the host cells. Besides, a recent report suggests that SARS-CoV-2 invaded host cells via another route of CD147-spike protein. Our lab is studying the endocytosis mechanism of several plasma membrane receptors previously...

Read more: Pierre Morsomme, Professor - Henri-François Renard, Professor

HUDERF and ULB
" Role of Children in Sars-Cov-2 transmission, Heath Care Worker protection, Paediatric epidemiology and disease burden "
Funding: FNRS funding under assessment.
Contact: Prof Pierre Smeesters Academic Children Hospital Queen Fabiola Molecular Bacteriology Laboratory, ULB This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UMONS /Materia Nova and UCLouvain
" The Covid-19 diagnostic platform of the University of mons , Famph accredited, is an enormous contribution to the much-needed effort against Covid-19. The Covid-19 RT-qPCR test has been developed by UNamur and transposed to UMONS with the help of our UMONS Innovation Center: MATERIA NOVA. The diagnostic platform is currently able to process more than 400 tests per day for the benefit of the region's hospitals, their hospitalised patients and their staff. This is a major contribution to increasing national screening capacity. The platform's teams, led by our Vice-Rector Ruddy Wattiez, are made up of some forty volunteer researchers and logisticians from the laboratories of the Institutes of Health and Biosciences. They take turns seven days a week to carry out this crucial operation, which was set up in record time. "
Publication References: ...

Read more: Ruddy Wattiez, Professor - Lionel Tafforeau, Professor - Elise Hennebert, Doctor - Anne-Emilie...

Materia Nova
" Based on its expertise on surface treatments and biotechnology, Materia Nova is actively working on the development of decontamination process or anti-viral surface treatments. On the one one hand, plasma technology can be used to decontaminate surfaces or fabric, like sanitary masks. Beyond masks, this technique can be used for the sterilization of medical parts (respirator tubing, surgical instruments...) even sensitive to temperature. The technology can be declined in the form of a small system that could also be useful in structures other than hospitals such as nursing homes, shops... On the other hand, the knowledge of Materia Nova in wet and dry functional coatings dedicated to various properties and applications (transport, health, energy,…) helps to investigate the anti-viral surface treatment. Due to this large panel of technologies (plasma deposition, sol-gel, organic coating or electrodeposition), the coatings or the combination of coatings can be applied on...

Read more: Stéphanie Roosa, Program Leader Biotechnology - Thomas Godfroid, Scientific Leader Plasma...

ULB and Hôpital de Marche (Vivalia)
" Three axes to improve SARS-CoV-2 infection detection. 1. Development of RNA positive controls for real-time PCR allowing to give the SARS-CoV-2 RNA results in viral load quantification. Development of samples carrying eukaryote mRNA and recombinant RNA positive controls allowing to give after reverse transcription and real-time PCR the results in viral load/copy number. Method: The amplified region of the SARS-CoV-2 E gene was cloned in a E. coli expression vector allowing recombinant mRNA production after IPTG induction. Positive control samples are prepared by adding a known copy numbers of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to human eukaryote RNA, in order to have standard positive controls during the diagnosis method. 2. Development of a new SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis assay allowing point-of-care testing using the SHERLOCK diagnostics system. 3. Production of recombinant proteins allowing for anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin detection by ELISA."
Contact: Véronique...

Read more: Véronique Fontaine, Professor - Philippe Lefèvre, Doctor - Véronique Megalizzi, Doctor

UCLouvain
" To confirm endothelial dysfunction in severe covid-19 patients admitted in Intensive Care Unit "
Funding: actually private; but waiting answer for credit urgent de recherche by FNRS
Publication References: 1) Manoury B, Montiel V, Balligand JL (2012). Nitric oxide synthase in post-ischaemic remodelling: New pathways and mechanisms. Cardiovascular Research, 94(2), 304-315. 2) Montiel V, Leon Gomez E, Bouzin C, Esfahani H, Romero Perez M, Lobysheva I, Balligand JL (2014). Genetic deletion of aquaporin-1 results in microcardia and low blood pressure in mouse with intact nitric oxide-dependent relaxation, but enhanced prostanoids-dependent relaxation. Pflugers Archiv European Journal of Physiology, 466(2), 237-251. 3) Montiel V, Robinson E, Bella R, Michel L, Esfahani H, De Mulder D, Deglasse JP, Jonas JC, Steinhorn B, Michel T, Beauloye C, Bertrand L, Farah C, Dei Zotti F, Bouzin C, Brusa D, Bergmann O, Gilis D, Rooman M, Roderick L, Devuyst O, Balligand JL. Cardiac...

Read more: Virginie Montiel, Professor