The head of the Infections and Cancer Lab at ICO-IDIBELL, Ignacio Gonzalez Bravo has received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to develop his CODOVIREVOL project: “Evolution of viral codon usage preferences: manipulation of translation accuracy and evasion of immune response “. The grant entails financing of 2 million euros for the next five years.

The draft Gonzalez Bravo focuses on studying the mechanisms used by viruses that cause chronic infections in order to stay within the host without causing your immune response. The researcher explained the importance of understanding these mechanisms because “15-20% of human cancers are caused by infections. Approximately one third from papilloma virus, another third from virus infections of the hepatitis B and C, and the rest by Helicobacter pylori infections.”

“We want to know how viruses that cause chronic infections used a particular dialect of the genetic code, it would be the common language of all agencies, in order to go unnoticed by the host immune system and continue to divide within infected cells until lesions come to cause cancer, “said Gonzalez Bravo.

Fourteen researchers from the Catalan research system have been recognized in the second round of the ERC Consolidator Grants granted to scientists who are in the middle of his/her career. These -highly competitive- grant will fund these researchers over the next five years so that they can consolidate their teams and develop innovative ideas throughout the European Research Area.

The Consolidator Grants aim to boost the career of talented and innovative vision that have demonstrated their research potential and scientific maturity. In this second call, projects of researchers have covered diverse areas of knowledge: computing, economics, physics, nanotechnology, bioengineering and biology.