Researchers from six European countries are meeting in Malta to examine how viral infections such as HIV and COVID-19 may continue to affect the body after the initial infection has passed.
The researchers are gathering in Malta on 7 and 8 October for the General Assembly of EPIVINF, a European-funded research project investigating the longer-term biological effects of HIV and SARS-CoV-2 infections.
The two-day meeting is being hosted by Maltese partner Omniscope and brings together scientists from different fields to discuss recent findings and agree on priorities for the next phase of the project.
EPIVINF is coordinated by Barcelona-based research centre IrsiCaixa and focuses on the role of epigenetics - biological mechanisms that regulate how genes function without changing the underlying DNA sequence.
Researchers are studying whether HIV and SARS-CoV-2 can cause changes to these mechanisms and whether such changes could help explain why some effects of infection persist beyond the acute phase.
"While much research focuses on the immediate effects of viral infection, EPIVINF is investigating the biological changes that may persist after the acute phase," said Christian Brander, the project's coordinator and principal investigator at IrsiCaixa.
According to Brander, viral infections can affect the processes that regulate gene activity, potentially influencing how cells function and respond over time.
The project is particularly examining genes and biological pathways linked to the immune system and brain function. Researchers are also investigating whether differences in epigenetic regulation that exist before infection could influence how individuals respond to vaccination.
The research could help scientists better understand why people can experience different outcomes following viral infections, including differences in recovery and longer-term effects.
The involvement of Omniscope has also brought the European research consortium to Malta for the latest stage of its work.
Omniscope CEO Vijay Vaswani said hosting the General Assembly in Malta reflected the company's commitment to developing the country's research and development ecosystem.
"Hosting the EPIVINF General Assembly in Malta is a testament to our roots and our commitment to building world-class research infrastructure here," Vaswani said.
He noted that EPIVINF is one of four major EU projects in which Omniscope Malta is involved, adding that the company intends to continue expanding its Maltese operations while developing international collaborations in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
Omniscope's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Holger Heyn, said the company was contributing its single-cell and immune profiling technologies to the project.
"We are proud to bring our cutting-edge single-cell and immune profiling capabilities to the EPIVINF consortium," Heyn said.
The company is using sequencing technologies to analyse T-cell and B-cell receptors, allowing researchers to examine changes in immune-cell populations associated with HIV and SARS-CoV-2.
Omniscope is also applying artificial intelligence to combine large-scale immune-system data with information on DNA methylation and gene expression. The aim is to identify links between changes in immune responses, vaccination outcomes and longer-term consequences following infection.
The researchers say that combining these different areas of data could provide a more detailed picture of how viral infections interact with the immune system and how those effects may develop over time.
The EPIVINF project therefore goes beyond studying the virus itself, focusing instead on what happens inside the body after the initial infection and on the biological factors that may influence an individual's recovery.
The meeting in Malta forms part of the wider European research effort to better understand the longer-term consequences of viral infections and the factors that may determine why people respond differently to the same infection.