Pathogens and diseases with pandemic potential feature in many DFG-funded projects, especially research groups that bring together biological and clinical expertise. Many projects are concerned with research questions that are not directly related to the current coronavirus pandemic but deal with a wide spectrum of fundamental questions that may be relevant to pandemics.

BiodivERsA-Call „Biodiversity and its influence on animal, human and plant health“

Since March 2020, the DFG together with European partner organisations have been funding projects submitted under the call “Biodiversity and its influence on animal, human and plant health” of the European network BiodivERsA. In September 2020, the European Commission decided to provide additional funding for the following two projects under this call, each of which will enable a supplementary programme of research relating to the COVID-19 pandemic to be added to the original work programme. The European Commission’s additional funding will be allocated proportionately to several researchers from Europe based on their participation in the supplementary activities of the project.

List of funded Projects:

Subject Area	Project in GEPRIS
Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions since 2019	Biodiversity changes in African forests and Emerging Infectious Diseases: should we worry?
Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens Virology since 2019	Managing biodiversity in forests and urban green spaces: dilution and amplification effects on rodent microbiomes and rodent-borne diseases (BioRodDis)
Medicine Funded between 2010 to 2022	TRR 84: Innate Immunity of the Lung: Mechanisms of Pathogen Attack and Host Defence in Pneumonia
Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Funded between 2010 to 2015	GRK 1673: Functional Molecular Infection Epidemiology
Medicine Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine since 2013	SFB 1021: RNA Viruses: RNA Metabolism, Host Response and Pathogenesis
Medicine Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine Biology Funded between 2013 to 2020	SPP 1596: Ecology and Species Barriers in Emerging Viral Diseases
Biology Chemistry Medicine since 2014	SFB 1129: Integrative Analysis of Pathogen Replication and Spread
Virology Funded between 2014 to 2019	Occult hepatitis B virus infection and reactivation in Africans in the context of the human immunodeficiency virus pandemic
Virology Funded between 2014 to 2019	Tetherin antagonism by the Ebola virus glycoprotein: Molecular mechanism and contribution to viral spread
Virology Funded between 2015 to 2020	Emerging viruses in Africa: Molecular identification and characterisation of rodent-, shrew-, and bat-borne hantaviruses and assessment of their public health potential
Gynaecology and Obstetrics since 2015	Influenza during pregnancy: The emergence of highly virulent H1N1 influenza virus strains and consequences for maternal and offspring’s health
Virology Funded between 2015 to 2020	Determinants for Norovirus Host and Cell Tropism
Medicine since 2016	KFO 309: Virus-induced Lung Injury: Pathobiology and Novel Therapeutic Strategies
Immunology Virology Funded between 2016 to 2020	Harnessing layers of CD4 T cell immunity for HIV vaccine design
Virology Veterinary Medical Sciene Funded between 2016 to 2022	Bunyavirus and Paramyxovirus infections at the interface between wildlife, livestock and humans in Nigeria and Cameroon
Virology since 2016	Impact of viral and cellular protein phosphorylation on the regulation of innate antiviral immune responses against influenza A virus infections
Virology since 2016	Molecular biology and spill-over potential of bat influenza A-like viruses
Virology Funded between 2016 to 2020	Role of IFN-lambda in host defense against respiratory virus infections
Virology Immunology Structural Biology since 2017	Understanding the Mechanism of Yellow Fever 17D vaccine Efficacy: An Immuni-Structural Approach towards the Design of a Pan-Flavivirus Vaccine
Virology Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens since 2017	Identification of virus transmission networks to control key arboviral diseases in Kenya
Virology since 2018	Molecular mechanisms of Zika virus-associated neuropathogenesis and possible link to virus evolution
Virology Immunology Funded between 2018 to 2021	Kinetics and immunology of early Ebola virus infection (PREVIREMIX)
Medical Microbiology and Mycology, Hygiene, Molecular Infection Biology Immunology since 2018	A combined modeling framework to break the lethal alliance between influenza and bacterial coinfections
Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Basic Research in Biology and Medicine since 2019	EXC 2155: RESIST - Resolving Infection Susceptibility
Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Basic Research in Biology and Medicine since 2019	EXC 2151: ImmunoSensation2 - the immune sensory system
Medicine Basic Research in Biology and Medicine Computer Science Microbiology, Virology and Immunology Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas since 2019	EXC 2167: Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI)
Anaesthesiology since 2019	Exploring the mechanisms of cytokine storm induction and systemic infection by highly pathogenic influenza viruses
Immunology Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine since 2019	The postnatal maturation of human innate immunity against influenza infections and the associated risk for severe influenza diseases in dependence on the developing gut microbiome
Virology since 2019	Enhanced respiratory syncytial virus disease or protection from infection depends on the subtype used for adenoviral vector vaccination