ERC Synergy Grant Awarded for CoEvolve Project
Great news: Florian and Michael Lässig (Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne) have been awarded a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant together with Aleksandra Walczak (CNRS, France) and Michael Desai (Harvard University, USA).
The six-year project CoEvolve will receive around €10.5 million in funding and focuses on the co-evolution of viruses and the immune system. By combining laboratory experiments, long-term human studies and global virus data, the team aims to better understand and predict how pathogens evolve—and how immune protection can adapt.
CoEvolve will particularly study influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2, two rapidly changing respiratory viruses, and develop new molecular tests and computational models to support improved vaccines and long-term public health preparedness.