Yiqi Huang, Author at InnateLab

May 9, 2025May 9, 2025

NoVir: Towards Better Protection Against Future Pandemics

The European Union by their EU4Health Programme will fund NoVir – a consortium of four European partners which will enhance public health resilience against future pandemics. This nearly €10 million grant will establish IFN-λ mRNA as an antiviral treatment option to be prepared against virus infections.

Based on our finding that IFN-λ mRNA formulations (ETH47) prevent virus infections (Macht et al., Embo Reports, 2024), and a highly successful phase-I clinical trial, the ERC is funding a 2-year project covering two phase II clinical trials and accommodating pre-clinical research. This collaborative effort between Ethris (Carsten Rudolph, Thomas Langenickel), Aarhus University (Soren Riis Paludan), and us will enable the development of ETH47 as an antiviral treatment that may be active against diverse viruses.

The NoVir project will run from 1 May 2025, to 30 April 2027 and will include the following aspects:

Clinical rhinovirus challenge study in asthmatic and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, populations at high risk for severe viral infections.
Clinical study in healthy volunteers infected with influenza to assess ETH47’s antiviral efficacy.
Preclinical research exploring ETH47’s protective effects against diverse viral pathogens.
ETH47’s impact on intravaginal, ocular, and systemic infections.
ETH47’s synergism with existing antiviral treatments.

We are very excited to research the breadth of ETH47 as a pan-antiviral agent that may help battle future epidemics and pandemics.

May 6, 2025May 6, 2025

Vilber Fusion Absolute – our brand new imager!

It is our great pleasure to welcome a new “lab member” – Vilber Fusion Absolute! It is capable of both chemiluminescence and fluorescence imaging, and has an automated image acquisition program. With its high-quality images and advanced software, we can even perform absolute quantification of proteins.

We can’t wait to analyse our Western Blots with Vilber Fusion Absolute!

Text by Yiqi, photos by Yicheng and Melissa.

February 19, 2025March 25, 2025

Goodbye Schnecke, hello TranslaTUM!

A bit over six years ago, the Innates moved from MPI to the lovely “Schneckebunker” in the city centre. Now, after years of planning and replanning, we have moved again to our new home in TranslaTUM! Leaving Schnecke was not easy – it contained so much of our memories, and a bit too much of stuff (or trash, the borderline was often unclear). After all, this building has been occupied by researchers for more than three decades! It took us a while to sort out the things to bring with us while admiring the design of some historical lab pieces…

The big days came at the end of December – carton after carton, truck after truck, we were moving! There were unexpected challenges every day, and it was a stressful time for everyone. However, we managed it with an incredible team effort.

We had our last Christmas party in Schnecke and decorated the walls with colourful paintings. Many ex-Innates came to experience Schnecke one last time. In the upcoming years, it will be replaced by a brand-new building for multiple sclerosis research.

Goodbye Schnecke – thank you for hosting us with your special charm! Hello TranslaTUM – we’re ready for a fresh start!

Text by Yiqi, photos by Dorsa, Lara and Virginie.

November 17, 2024March 17, 2025

Uncovering the importance of protein turnover regulation in IAV infection

Protein turnover is crucial to the cellular response to internal and external changes. In our publication in Cell Systems, we systematically profiled the protein turnover changes in cells infected by the influenza A virus (IAV). We identified more than a thousand virus-affected proteins with turnover changes (tVAPs) and demonstrated their important roles in IAV infection by intersecting them with published IAV interactome and genome-wide screens and performing additional functional analyses. We further investigated a splicing factor GPKOW, which we found to be an antiviral tVAP that modulates the host’s innate immune response. The data can be explored here: https://pulsechase.innatelab.org/

Congratulations to Yiqi, Chris, Philipp and Alexey – it was a successful collaboration across multiple generations of Innates!

Text by Yiqi.

August 17, 2024March 17, 2025

mRNA therapy as a potential treatment against SARS-CoV-2

In our publication in EMBO reports, we investigated the effectiveness of LNP-formulated IFNλ1 mRNA (ETH47) in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection. ETH47 successfully induced an ISG response without excessive inflammation and inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in our in vitro and in vivo models. These promising results highlighted the possibility of using mRNA therapy in treating virus infections and laid the foundations for the upcoming clinical trials of ETH47.

Congratulations to Yiqi, Vince, and our collaborators from ETHRIS and Aarhus University!

Text by Yiqi.

August 17, 2024March 17, 2025

Multiomics analysis of the monkeypox virus

The recent outbreaks of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) raised concerns about the impact of poxviruses on public health. In our publication in Nature Communications, we present a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptomic, proteomic and phosphoproteomic changes induced by MPXV infection in primary cells. In addition to identifying virus-perturbed pathways, such as innate immunity and TGF-β signalling, we revealed dynamic phosphorylation of both host and virus proteins and uncovered the role of MPXV H5 phosphorylation in its function. Leveraging our omics data, we predicted and validated several drugs that inhibit MPXV replication. We hope our research will deepen the understanding of MPXV biology and facilitate the development of novel therapeutics against MPXV!

Congratulations to Yiqi, Valter, Vince, Quirin, Sabri, Karsten, Alex, and all the collaborators involved in this study!

Text by Yiqi.