The Research of the Unit Mol­e­c­u­lar Virol­o­gy cen­ters around the mol­e­c­u­lar and cell­bi­ol­o­gy of human path­o­gen­ic RNA virus­es. Under the lead­er­ship of our newdi­rec­tor, Prof. Dr. Math­ias Mun­schauer, the depart­ment builds on its long-standing­ex­per­tise in hepati­tis virus­es (HAV, HBV, HCV, HDV) and fla­vivirus­es (e.g. Dengue,Zika), while expand­ing into the mol­e­c­u­lar virol­o­gy of res­pi­ra­to­ry RNA viruses,including SARS-CoV­‑2. Our mis­sion is to uncov­er the fun­da­men­tal mech­a­nisms and­de­pen­den­cies under­ly­ing com­plex virus–host inter­ac­tions and under­stand howvirus­es acti­vate and coun­ter­act innate antivi­ral defens­es. Our ulti­mate goal is totrans­late these insights into nov­el antivi­ral con­cepts and strategies.

Research teams in the depart­ment inves­ti­gate how virus­es sub­vert host cell­path­ways, manip­u­late innate defense mech­a­nisms, and estab­lish per­sis­tent ora­cute infec­tions. Com­bin­ing clas­si­cal virol­o­gy with advanced technologies,including high-res­o­lu­tion microscopy, func­tion­al genomics, pro­teomics, and­com­pu­ta­tion­al biol­o­gy, we take an inte­gra­tive, sys­tems-lev­el approach to study­ingvi­ral infec­tions. Through close inter­dis­ci­pli­nary col­lab­o­ra­tion with our part­ners atthe med­ical cam­pus Hei­del­berg and beyond, we bring togeth­er com­ple­men­taryper­spec­tives to tack­le key ques­tions in the field of mod­ern virol­o­gy and train future­vi­rol­o­gists to address the com­plex chal­lenges posed by emerg­ing and reemergingviruses.

Belong­ing to the med­ical fac­ul­ty and with mem­bers of the Research Unit Mol­e­c­u­larVi­rol­o­gy being co-opt­ed with the Fac­ul­ty of Bio­science the Research Unit­par­tic­i­pates in train­ing and edu­ca­tion of med­ical and life sci­ence stu­dents in the­field of infec­tious dis­eases, virol­o­gy and cell biol­o­gy by giv­ing lec­tures, sem­i­narsand lab prac­ti­cals and by coor­di­nat­ing the Major Infec­tious Dis­eases and the­do­c­tor­al study pro­gram of the Cen­ter for Infec­tious Dis­eases in Heidelberg.

The cre­ation of the Research Unit Mol­e­c­u­lar Virol­o­gy has been made pos­si­ble by theChi­ca and Heinz Schaller Foun­da­tion that fund­ed the posi­tion of the Found­ingDi­rec­tor, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ralf Barten­schlager, for the first 10 years, along with astart-up grant to help set­ting up the nec­es­sary research infrastructure.

For more detailed infor­ma­tion about our depart­ment please fol­low the link below:
https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/zentrum-fuer-infektiologie/molecular-virology/