Nadia Naffakh, winner of a 2019 Human Frontier Science Program Grant

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) promotes innovation and interdisciplinarity in basic research in the field of life sciences, for the elucidation of complex biological mechanisms.

Research grants are awarded to teams of scientists from different countries who wish to combine their expertise in order to develop highly innovative approaches that none of the isolated teams would be able to develop. One of these grants, the "HFSP Program Grant", is awarded for 3 years to groups of 2 to 4 teams from at least two countries.

Nadia Naffakh, a researcher in the Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses Unit, is coordinating one of the 25 research groups awarded a Program Grant in 2019. She and her collaborators Ibrahim Cissé (MIT, Cambridge, USA) and Juan Fontana (Leeds University, UK) are distinguished for their project entitled "Imaging viral RNA genome assembly with high spatial and temporal resolution of infected cells". Their goal is to investigate the mechanisms underlying the intracellular transport and assembly of the segmented genome of influenza viruses, by developing advanced technologies in cell engineering, molecular virology, and imaging. The elucidation of these fundamental aspects of viral replication should ultimately contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of emergence of zoonotic and pandemic influenza viruses, closely related to the segmented nature of the viral genome and the possibilities of genetic reassortment between human and animal viruses.