University Hospital Jena
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Department of Virology and Antiviral Therapy (IVAT)
Hans-Knöll-Str. 2
07745 Jena
Phone: +49 (0) 3641 939 5715, Fax: +49 (0) 3641 939 5732
michaela.schmidtke@med.uni-jena.de
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Research Interests:
Two research groups of the Department of Virology and Antiviral Therapy at the Jena University Hospital investigate the diversity and evolution of influenza A viruses and search for new antivirals. Sequencing of influenza virus isolates (in collaboration with partners from IDT Biologika GmbH, Dessau-Rosslau, and the Leibniz Institute for Age Research, Fritz Lipmann Institute, Jena) reveals annual substitution rates, frequency of reassortment events and the emergence of stable infection chains of novel reassortants. Phenotypic properties are described by testing virus susceptibility to various antiviral compounds, receptor specificities and the virulence of virus isolates in vitro and in vivo. These approaches allow to understand in detail the evolution of swine influenza viruses in Germany for the past 30 years with regard to influenza virus antigenicity and susceptibility to antivirals.