Hepatitis C - Patrick Descombes, one of the Leenaards’ Prize 2008 awardees, aims at discovering why infected persons respond so differently to the virus.

Around 3% of the world’s population are infected by the virus of hepatitis C. However, the persons attacked respond to this awesome germ in a very heterogeneous fashion. Some of them eliminate it spontaneously, whereas others suffer from severe, sometimes fatal, hepatic complications. The response to treatments also varies considerably. These divergences seem to result, at least in part, from individual genetic differences that modulate the immune response to infection.

The Leenaards’ Foundation is rewarding this year three researchers from the CHUV and the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, who are combining their know-how to detect these genetic factors. Pierre-Yves Bochud, Patrick Descombes and Sven Bergmann have developed a multifaceted project, in collaboration with physicians and scientists with diverse backgrounds.

The detection of genetic variants, which are hundreds of thousand-folds, will be done with the use of microarrays (gene chips) within the Genomics Platform of the NCCR Frontiers in Genetics, led by Patrick Descombes. The DNA from more than 1,200 patients having reacted to the virus in different ways will be provided by the Swiss Cohort “Hepatitis C”, associated with the project.

A better understanding of the mechanisms of viral infection and the development of tailor-made and more efficient therapies, such are the aims of the study financed by the Swiss Foundation.

Communiqué


The pursuit of excellence

The Poles of Genetics and Physics obtain 18 million francs

The national research Poles Frontiers in Genetics and MaNEP will receive at least 18 million francs for the next four years, which constitutes the last phase of granting awarded by the Swiss National Fund. This allocation represents an important acknowledgement of the quality of the work accomplished within these scientific networks. This financial boon will serve both to pursue cutting edge research in those fields and to complete the integration of the Poles’ activities within the University of Geneva.

Details on Unige website (In French)