The Virome@tlas project
Viral diseases pose a global and systemic health challenge. Recent pandemics have highlighted the close links between human, animal, and environmental health, against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating ecosystems and the interdependence of a globalized economy.
A comprehensive approach to viruses is essential for better understanding the interactions critical to maintaining One Health. This approach aims to improve how our societies prevent and adapt to health crises by integrating a deep understanding of viral diversity and the ability of viruses to adapt to various hosts—whether human or non-human—across diverse environments.
The Virome@tlas project aims to develop a cloud-based digital platform for the global surveillance of viruses. This platform will analyze the interactions between viruses, their hosts, and their environments to better understand their geographical distribution and the mechanisms behind the emergence of epidemics.
By integrating massive biological sequencing data from public archives with large-scale geographic data, this innovative tool will make it possible to identify priority geographic areas, animals, and viruses for surveillance, thereby strengthening global preparedness for future pandemics.
An interdisciplinary consortium
Virome@tlas relies on an interdisciplinary consortium bringing together scientists specializing in human, animal, and environmental health—both within and beyond the SHAPE-Med@Lyon community. The project aims to combine expertise in bioinformatics, virology, and geomatics to foster a deep understanding of the interactions between these fields.
Project leaders:
Vincent NAVRATIL
Vincent Navratil is a Research Engineer at Lyon 1 Université and the scientific lead of the PRABI-AMSB bioinformatics platform. For nearly 20 years, he has focused on modeling and analyzing virus-host systems using computational approaches based on the integration of “omics” data. He regularly participates in interdisciplinary scientific collaborations and supports bioinformatics projects involving the analysis of massive sequencing datasets in fields related to virology, ecology, and health.
Laurence JOSSET
Laurence Josset is a virologist at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (CIRI). She co-leads the high-throughput sequencing platform dedicated to the diagnosis and epidemiological study of infectious diseases (GenEPII). Her research focuses on analyzing the respiratory virome and its interactions with the microbiome in the context of health and disease.
Jocelyn TURPIN
Jocelyn Turpin is an INRAE research scientist within the UMR754 Infections Virales et Pathologie Comparée. For many years, his work has focused on virus-induced cancers in humans and animals. His research projects are multidisciplinary, ranging from environmental virus surveillance to the co-evolution of viruses with their hosts.
Oldrich NAVRATIL
Oldrich Navratil is a lecturer and researcher at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 and a member of the UMR 5600 CNRS-EVS (Environment, City, and Society) unit. His research focuses on river hydrosystems, with a particular interest in the interactions between hydro-sedimentary processes, biocenoses, and social dynamics. The societal issues associated with this topic, along with the interdisciplinary approach of Virome@tlas—which combines concepts and tools from bioinformatics, virology, and geography—are key drivers of his contribution to the project.
They have joined us:
Elea PAULIAT
Elea Pauliat holds a degree in bioinformatics from INSA Lyon. She joined the Virome@tlas project as a bioinformatics research engineer to consolidate and develop the processing, visualization, and analysis of biological data.
Paul TiSSOT
Paul Tissot joined the Virome@tlas project as a geomatics research engineer after completing a Master’s degree at ENSG specializing in spatial analysis and remote sensing. As part of the project, he works on integrating geographic data to enable the analysis and characterization of the virome at various scales and to study its relationship with the environment.
Mélodie FLEURY
Mélodie Fleury is a geomatics research engineer on the Virome@tlas project. After completing her engineering training at Géo-Data Paris (formerly ENSG-Géomatique) and AgroParisTech, she joined the project to strengthen large-scale geospatial analysis of the virome.
Luca NESTERENKO
Luca Nesterenko holds a PhD in deep learning from Lyon 1 Université. Passionate about scientific data visualization, he joined Virome@tlas as a research engineer to develop the frontend interface for the digital platform designed by the project.
Partners
Pôle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes de Bioinformatique Analyse et Modélisation des Systèmes Biologiques (PRABI-AMSB) | Dominique GUYOT Christine OGER |
Infections Virales et Pathologie Comparée (IVPC) – UMR 754 | Caroline LEROUX |
Environnement Ville société (EVS) LBBE – UMR 5600 | Romain DELUNEL Jérome LEJOT François MIALHE |
Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive (LBBE) – UMR5558 | Damien DE VIENNE |
Enseignement – Master Bioinfo@Lyon – Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive (LBBE) – UMR5558 | Vincent LACROIX |
Infrastructure mutualisée LBBE/PRABI-AMSB | Stéphane DELMOTTE |
Institut Français de Bioinformatique (IFB) | Christophe BLANCHET |