Wolfisberg Raphael

As a member of Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP) I am engaging in research on hepatitis C virus (HCV), a human pathogen chronically infecting around 150 million worldwide. The lack of immunocompetent HCV animal models greatly hampers the development of effective vaccine strategies. Recent advances in sequencing technologies highly enhanced the discovery of animal viruses and vastly expanded the genus of hepaciviruses. Currently, my research focuses on non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV) infection in horses and rodent hepacivirus (RHV) infection in rodents which are of particular interest, given their close relatedness to HCV and tractable animal size, respectively. Understanding these novel animal hepaciviruses has dual purpose: It could provide permissive in vitro systems and surrogate immunocompetent HCV animal models, but at the same time improve our understanding of important liver disease in horses. My research in the past has focused on parvoviruses, particularly on human erythroparvovirus B19 (B19V) and protoparvovirus minute virus of mice (MVM). The main efforts have been concentrated in the study of their intracellular maturation and egress (MVM), as well as their in vitro propagation system and its limitations (B19V). I have solid expertise in various biochemical, virology, and molecular biological methodologies.