Colin Russell, affiliated with AII, received the prestigious Vici grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He received 1.5 million euros to develop a new innovative line of research on influenza for the coming five years.
The evolution within us
We get the flu repeatedly because influenza viruses keep changing (evolving) to escape our immune response. At the same time, our immune system evolves with every infection to attack the new virus variant. Russell's research uses new approaches to characterize how our immune system changes after each influenza virus infection and how these changes affect virus evolution.
Vici is one of the largest scientific grants for individuals in the Netherlands and targets advanced researchers who have successfully demonstrated the ability to develop their own innovative lines of research, and to act as coaches for young researchers.
Source: NWO