Hacking the ribosome to map virus-host associations
Image by Junfeng Liu & Mart Krupovic
The outline of VirHox project
VirHoX is a Horizon Europe research project dedicated to uncovering the hidden interactions between viruses and their hosts at the molecular level. While much of microbiome research focuses on identifying which organisms are present, VirHoX goes one step further: it aims to determine who interacts with whom, and how these interactions shape biological systems.
Novel technology
The development of VirHo-seq, a novel technology designed to directly capture and sequence viral–host molecular interactions.
Expertise
VirHoX will bridge expertise in molecular biology, bioinformatics, virology, and translational research
Integration
The VirHoX technology will be designed to integrate smoothly with existing laboratory and computational infrastructures, including standard Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing platforms, integration with available metagenomic datasets and existing microbiome pipelines and FAIR-compliant data formats enabling interoperability
Final advancement
VirHoX will enable a shift from descriptive virome analysis to predictive and mechanistic viral–host interaction mapping, creating the scientific and technological foundation for next-generation diagnostics, microbiome engineering strategies, and targeted therapeutic interventions.