In our research projects we are studying the biology of viruses. Our focus is on human adenoviruses which can become threatening especially to immunocompromised persons. In these projects we investigate virus-host interactions to be able to understand how the viruses manipulate their host cells for productive replication and to evade the immune system. In this regard a central focus is on a set of virus-encoded non-coding RNAs and their impact on virus replication as well as on the mechanism that allows the viruses to persist in the body. The knowledge about virus-host interactions is supposed to allow the identification of viral drug targets for future therapeutic interventions.

For the development of concepts for the therapeutic treatment of adenovirus infections we focus on the evaluation of novel strategies such as the inhibition of virus replication by CRISPR/Cas systems or by RNA interference-based techniques making use of virus-specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs).

Another focus in our research is on the biology of RNA and its chemical modification. We use adenovirus as a model system to investigate the impact of RNA modifications on the functionality of certain viral RNAs. As RNA therapeutics will play a central role in future therapeutic concepts for the treatment of human diseases understanding the impact of chemical modifications for the functionality of RNAs will become of high importance.