Study on mecha­nisms of SARS-CoV‑2 infections

Hector Fellow Ralf Barten­schlager and Young Researcher Yannick Stahl are among the authors of this funded publi­ca­tion in Molec­u­lar Cell, which was published on July 20, 2023.

Enhanced SARS-CoV‑2 entry via UPR-depen­dent AMPK-related kinase NUAK2: The authors found that SARS-CoV‑2 infec­tion activates the unfolded protein response (UPR), which leads to the produc­tion of NUAK2. NUAK2 is required for the entry of SARS-CoV‑2 into cells and promotes viral spread. These findings suggest that NUAK2 could be a poten­tial target for the devel­op­ment of antivi­ral drugs.

Yannick Stahl conducts research on the mecha­nisms under­ly­ing patho­gen­e­sis of SARS-CoV‑2 infec­tions. He is being super­vised by Hector Fellow Ralf Barten­schlager during his doctoral project. Ralf Barten­schlager is direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Molec­u­lar Virol­ogy at the Centre for Infec­tious Diseases at the Medical Faculty of the Heidel­berg Univer­sity and head of the Division of Virus-Associ­ated Carcino­gen­e­sis at the DKFZ German Cancer Research Center.