Prof. dr. E.J. Snijder

Why the SARS virus will not return; and why it will...

Workshop Leader: Prof. dr. E.J. Snijder

Department: Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center

In the winter of 2002-2003, a previously unknown coronavirus emerged, apparently out of nowhere, and became the first pandemic threat of the 21st century by causing a previously unknown respiratory disease, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Although the time and place of emergence, and the exact type of virus, may have been somewhat unexpected, SARS-coronavirus belongs to a long list of viruses with an RNA genome that have jumped from animals to humans over the past decades.

More than ever before, the SARS virus demonstrated how viruses can travel with their host and spread around the globe in a matter of days. The SARS epidemic will be summarized and the molecular biological background of RNA virus evolution in general, and SARS coronavirus in particular, will be discussed.

You will also be asked to bring up your best ideas to stop the next outbreak, whether it may be caused by the SARS virus or the next novel human pathogen. In addition, you will be updated on recent advances in the research on SARS-coronavirus and several other novel coronaviruses that were discovered in the post-SARS era.