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OrganoVIR
Illustrative image © Fusion Medical Animation (via Unsplash)

ProjectOrganoVIR

Fighting viruses with organoids

Organoids for Virus Research - An innovative training-ETN programme (OrganoVIR)

Many viruses still lack treatments or vaccines. OrganoVIR used lab-grown human tissue models to study infections more accurately than animal tests. This research helps develop new medicines while training scientists in cutting-edge methods, improving public health across Europe.

Project impact

Simplified mini versions of organs are being used in the fight against viruses, helping to reveal how they spread and how antiviral drugs work. Traditionally, this has been done using animal testing or immortalised cancerous cell lines – cells that have mutated to divide indefinitely. However, these traditional models still fail to fully capture how viruses interact with human cells in the body. The OrganoVIR project brought a group of early-career researchers together to make simplified 3D mini-organs, known as organoids. These can better recreate how viruses spread in the body and how antiviral drugs work, while using fewer test animals. Throughout the project, the researchers developed skills in organoids and virology, as well as in management and business, boosting the technology transfer potential of the research. They were able to adapt these human organoids to study how viruses such as coronaviruses and picornaviruses enter the human body and establish infection.

  • Coordinator

    Netherlands

    Academisch Medisch Centrum bij de Universiteit van Amsterdam

  • Participating and partners countries

    • Belgium
      • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
    • Denmark
      • Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
    • France
      • Université Clermont Auvergne
    • Netherlands
      • Universiteit Utrecht
      • Charles River Nederland BV
      • Universiteit van Amsterdam
    • Poland
      • Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
    • Switzerland
      • Université de Genève
    • United Kingdom
      • STEMCELL Technologies UK Ltd

    • Netherlands
      • Stichting Proefdiervrij* Dutch Society for the Replacement of Animal Testing
      • Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu
      • Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen - KNAW
    • Switzerland
      • Epithelix SARL
    • USA
      • Organome LLC

  • Project duration

    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2022

  • Funding scheme

    MSCA Innovative Training Network

  • Net EU contribution

    € 3 983 591,88

  • Strategic topic

    Health