Claudia Claus, PhD
Rubella virus and novel concepts for congenital rubella embryopathy
As a biologist working in the field of virology my research focus is set on the interaction of rubella virus with its respective host cell. This efficient viral teratogen is a strictly human-specific pathogen. The cellular mechanisms leading to the impairment of human development are still unknown. As illustrated hereafter rubella virus can be teratogenic from early pregnancy on. How it could get access to the developing embryo even at these early developmental stages remains an open question.
During my study of Biological Sciences at the University of Halle-Wittenberg a lecture on viruses as pirates of a cell initiated my interest in virology. From 1999 to 2000 I was enroled at the Queen’s University of Belfast as a non-graduating student. There I attended classes in general and specialiced virology. In 2006, during my doctoral thesis, I worked as a research scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Teryl Frey at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Hereafter more recent points of the timeline of my research work are summarized.
Timeline
Call for papers for the new Special Issue on “Rubella Virus Pathogenesis” in MDPI Pathogens. Please submit your manuscript by 1st of March 2021! Topics include, but are not limited to congenital rubella syndrome and embryonal development, rubella virus pathogenesis and angiogenesis plus endothelial cells, innate immune response, vaccine-derived infectious rubella virus.
Congratulations to Maria Wald for her stipend from the Dres. Jutta & Georg Bruns-Stiftung. Maria will pursue research on Usutu virus as a joint student with Michael Sieg from the Institute of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Congratulations to my student Mechthild Lorenz for successfully defending her MD thesis on rubella virus strain-specific differences in the induction of an interferon response.
Collaboration meeting with Giada Frascaroli from the Heinrich Pette Institute (HPI) in Hamburg. We discussed my presentation on „Exploring rubella virus and its connections to cytomegaloviurs“.
Appointment as project manager according to the gene technology act
Sarah Zobel and Mechthild Lorenz finished their work on their medical thesis, which contributed to our just accepted publication in viruses.
Janik Böhnke completed his master thesis on the characterization of the infection of iPSCs with coxsackievirus B3.
Lena Manssen has received the „Promotionspreis der Medizinischen Fakultät Leipzig“ – an award by the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig for her medical thesis. Congratulations!
