We are pleased to announce the recruitment of David Simarro González as joint PhD student co-financed by Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs – A*STAR IDL.

After a 4-month internship at the La Fe Health Research Institute | IIS La Fe during his BSc degree in Biology, David obtained a MSc degree in Virology from the Universitat de València, including an 8-month internship at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology i2sysbio working on new vaccine strategies for intranasal administration against respiratory viruses.

Co-supervised by Guillaume Carissimo, A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs – A*STAR IDL and Andres Pizzorno in Virpath team, David’s research project will focus on comparative systems virology to study putative host broad spectrum druggable targets to tackle major emerging and re-emerging viruses with epidemic and pandemic potential. Already supported by a PHC Merlion Program, our partnership with the world-renowned research centre A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs – A*STAR IDL aims to strengthen our synergistic expertise to improve pandemic preparedness and response capabilities.

We would like to thank sincerely Lisa F.P. Ng, Executive Director and Benny Chew, Director strategic management A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs – A*STAR IDL, Laurent Renia, ambassador INSERM Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, Senior Fellow Pathogen Immunology Lab, and Philippe CASSAGNAU, former Vice-president Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 for their trust and support.