Studies of hepatitis B and hepatitis D focusing on viral replication, viral sequencing and integration of the viral genome into human chromosomes

Hepatitis B is a major global health problem despite access to an effective vaccine. Chronic HBV infection occurs in 250 million people and entails a significant risk of liver cancer. Antiviral drugs can be given as a brake drug that prevents inflammation in the liver and reduces the risk of liver cancer, but there is no curative therapy.

Our research is translational in nature and applies molecular analyzes of HBV to patient samples to understand pathogenesis and viral mechanisms. In recent years, we have particularly focused on the phenomenon that the HBV genome can be integrated into human chromosomes because it is important for the risk of liver cancer, the production of the surface antigen (HBsAg) whose presence in the blood is of decisive diagnostic importance and because integration seems to be of great importance for hepatitis D virus infection.

The methods we use are mainly real-time PCR, digital PCR and deep sequencing (IonTorrent, Illumina, Nanopore).