Nicola G. A. Abrescia

Organizer of the Spanish Network of Excellence in Physical Virology: Bridging biomedical and nanotechnology application. The event took place at the CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao) on the 13-15, November 2019. The program of the meeting and the participating groups is detailed in https://www.cicbiogune.es/network-physical-virology

Co-Organizer of the Workshop with the title: 'Applications of Electron Microscopy: Knowledge and facilities in the Basque Country'. The event took place at the CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao) 15, March 2018. The program of the meeting and the participating groups is detailed in https://www.cicbiogune.es/cryo-em-course

Dr. Nicola GA Abrescia, a structural virologist at the CIC bioGUNE institute (near Bilbao – Spain) is leading the ZIKA: Prevention, Research, Epidemiology and Virology (ZIKV-PREV) consortium which has an overall goal of increasing our understanding of Zika virus infection, leading to new methods of treatment and prevention (a proposal has been submitted to the recent EU Zika call - http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/index.cfm?pg=area&areaname=zika). Zika virus infection has been shown to induce severe neurological diseases in the newborn (e.g. microcephaly) and in adults (e.g. Guillain-Barré syndrome). It is a major human health concern in Latin America and increasingly in other parts of the world. Zika virus is transmitted by Aedes mosquito bites. The ZIKV-PREV consortium is composed of a true partnership of sixteen outstanding academic groups and two small-medium enterprises across the globe from Brazil, the US, Europe (Spain, Germany, UK, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, The Netherlands), to Thailand that are already intensively working in understanding the fundamental mechanisms through which Zika virus induces the above neurological disorders. Expert ZIKV-PREV leaders will address pivotal aspects of the virus lifecycle, diagnosis, epidemiology, immune response, molecular evolution, viral and cellular factors that contribute to the severity of the diseases, follow up studies in surviving children, animal virus models, mosquito control and prevention. The concerted efforts of the ZIKV-PREV partners is to make sure that the knowledge generated through an integrative approach against Zika virus infection translates into implementable control measures and in a safe vaccination strategy. ZIKV-PREV is already pursuing the generation of live attenuated and inactivated Zika virus vaccines. ZIKV-PREV’s ambition is to reduce the burden of this outbreak to society and provide pre-clinical prototype vaccines within 36 months. To this end, ZIKV-PREV will align its research efforts with other ongoing Zika initiatives worldwide. Finally, the structure and expertise of the ZIKV-PREV network, the gained experience from previous joint initiatives on virus and the unfolding of the ZIKV-PREV work will enable an immediate research response capable to be swiftly and suitably adapted to tackle other emerging threats to global Public Health.

Co-Organizer of the meeting with the title: 'Physical Virology: From Structure to Evolution' meeting. The event took place in Bilbao 9-11, March 2015. The program of the meeting and the participating groups is detailed in http://www.ffn.ub.es/biofivinet/index.php/es/physvir.