GIGA Institute · FRS-FNRS · Prof. Jean-Claude Twizere, PI

GIGA VIN

Laboratory of Viral Interactomes Networks

We use high-throughput protein interaction technologies to understand how eukaryotic cells function. We perturb cellular context using viral infections and gene knockdown to elucidate potential therapeutic targets — from viral interactomes to cancer therapeutics.

View Our Research Latest publications

3RESEARCH THEMES

8LAB MEMBERS

2008PI · FRS-FNRS SINCE

LiègeBELGIUM

The Rebuild

From Manual Upkeep to a Living Lab Site

Today

Unmemorable URL

Hosted on a long university path — JCT has to look it up every time he wants to share it.

Publications frozen since 2024

The person who updated the site left the lab. 2025 and 2026 entries never made it on.

Manual article forwarding

JCT searches PubMed himself and emails relevant papers to collaborators one at a time.

Non-responsive, dated design

Breaks on mobile. No visual hierarchy. Sections that look clickable link to nothing.

With the rebuild

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Clean custom domain

A short, memorable URL JCT can share in one line — no more digging through university paths.

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Publications update themselves

Weekly PubMed check → JCT approves in one email → site updates automatically, organised by year.

✓

Routed to the right people

New articles matched to research themes and sent only to the collaborators who work on that theme.

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Modern, mobile-first design

Dark, card-based layout built to make the lab's work look as current as the research itself.

Our Research

Three themes. One interactome-first approach.

Each theme is a distinct research line in the lab, connected by a shared method: mapping protein interactions to find where disease pathways can be disrupted.

01 / VIROLOGY

Viral Interactomes

Since HTLV-1's discovery in 1979, we've studied how its Tax-1 and HBZ proteins hijack host signalling pathways — work that underpins our understanding of ATL pathogenesis.

HTLV-1 Tax-1 / HBZ ATL

02 / CELL BIOLOGY

Cell Biology

The endoplasmic reticulum is a dynamic network central to viral trafficking, protein synthesis, and calcium storage. We study how ER-resident glycosyltransferases shape its structure and stability.

ER dynamics Glycosyltransferases

03 / ONCOLOGY

Cancer Therapeutics Discovery

High-throughput screening to identify inhibitors of protein-protein interactions for cancer immunotherapy — including novel allosteric inhibitors of mutant JAK2 and oncolytic virus candidates.

Immunotherapy JAK2 Oncolytic viruses

Publications

Latest from the lab

Pulled automatically from PubMed, organised by year — JCT approves each batch before it goes live.

2024

Nanobody against SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein Nsp9 inhibits viral replication in human airway epithelia

A nanobody pipeline targeting conserved viral proteins made after host-cell entry, encapsulated as mRNA in lipid nanoparticles — shown to suppress multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants in 3D reconstituted human lung epithelium.

DOI

Nanoparticle-based blockade of SARS-CoV-2 replication in 3D lung epithelium

In collaboration with New York University Abu Dhabi, the team demonstrated that nanoparticles can block SARS-CoV-2 replication in a 3D lung epithelium model — supporting nanoparticle technology as a treatment avenue.

DOI

Macroalgae genetic evolution and morphology diversity — a comparative study

With the Algal Systems and Synthetic Biology lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, contributing new understanding of macroalgae genetic evolution and morphological diversity.

DOI

People