Background
Coronaviruses are commonly found in wild and domestic animals. Some animal coronaviruses can cause disease in humans and may even spread across the entire globe, causing a pandemic, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The problem is that currently we do not know which coronaviruses are a risk to humans and which are not. Therefore, we aim to identify animal coronaviruses that can potentially infect humans, and find out how.
There is, however, an issue with the traditional scientific methods to perform this research: they rely on cancer cells because these cells are easy to grow in the lab, but cancer cells do not behave the same way as the cells that the virus naturally infects in humans, and this leads to unreliable findings. To solve this, we use organoid technology which allows us to create miniature versions of organs in the laboratory, and study viruses in their natural 'environment'. Think of ‘mini-noses’, ‘mini-lungs’ and ‘mini-intestines’, and more...
We hope that our research will help prepare the world for the future coronavirus pandemics.
Selected publications
Mykytyn, A.Z., Breugem, T.I., Geurts, M.H., Beumer, J., Schipper, D., van Acker, R., van den Doel, P.B., van Royen, M.E., Zhang, J., Clevers, H., Haagmans, B.L.*, and Lamers, M.M.*. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron entry is type II transmembrane serine protease-mediated in human airway and intestinal organoid models. Aug 9, 2023. Journal of Virology, e0085123,10.1128/jvi.00851-23 (2023).
Zaeck L.M.*, Lamers M.M.*, Verstrepen B.E.*, Bestebroer T.M., van Royen M.E., Götz H., Shamier M.C., van Leeuwen L.P.M., Schmitz K.S., Alblas K., van Efferen S., Bogers S, Scherbeijn S, Rimmelzwaan GF, van Gorp ECM, Koopmans MPG, Haagmans B.L., GeurtsvanKessel C.H., de Vries R.D. Low levels of monkeypox virus-neutralizing antibodies after MVA-BN vaccination in healthy individuals. Nature Medicine (2022).
Lamers, M. M. & Haagmans, B. L. SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Nature Reviews Microbiology. (2022).
Lamers, M. M., Mykytyn, A. Z., Breugem, T. I., Wang, Y., Wu, D. C., Riesebosch, S., van den Doel, P. B., Schipper, D., Bestebroer, T., Wu, N. C. & Haagmans, B. L. Human airway cells prevent SARS-CoV-2 multibasic cleavage site cell culture adaptation. Elife 10, doi:10.7554/eLife.66815 (2021).
Beumer, J.*, Geurts, M. H.*, Lamers, M. M.*, Puschhof, J., Zhang, J., van der Vaart, J., Mykytyn, A. Z., Breugem, T. I., Riesebosch, S., Schipper, D., van den Doel, P. B., de Lau, W., Pleguezuelos-Manzano, C., Busslinger, G., Haagmans, B. L. & Clevers, H. A CRISPR/Cas9 genetically engineered organoid biobank reveals essential host factors for coronaviruses. Nature Communications 12, 5498, doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25729-7 (2021).
Mykytyn, A. Z., Breugem, T. I., Riesebosch, S., Schipper, D., van den Doel, P. B., Rottier, R. J., Lamers, M. M.* & Haagmans, B. L.* SARS-CoV-2 entry into human airway organoids is serine protease-mediated and facilitated by the multibasic cleavage site. Elife 10, doi:10.7554/eLife.64508 (2021).
Lamers, M. M.*, Beumer, J.*, van der Vaart, J.*, Knoops, K., Puschhof, J., Breugem, T. I., Ravelli, R. B. G., Paul van Schayck, J., Mykytyn, A. Z., Duimel, H. Q., van Donselaar, E., Riesebosch, S., Kuijpers, H. J. H., Schipper, D., van de Wetering, W. J., de Graaf, M., Koopmans, M., Cuppen, E., Peters, P. J., Haagmans, B. L. & Clevers, H. SARS-CoV-2 productively infects human gut enterocytes. Science 369, 50-54, doi:10.1126/science.abc1669 (2020).