The MRC Centre for Virus Research (CVR) at the University of Glasgow was established in 2010 and represents the UK’s largest grouping of human and veterinary virologists.
The mission of the CVR is to carry out multidisciplinary research on viruses and viral diseases of humans and animals, translating the knowledge gained for the improvement of human and animal health. Prof Massimo Palmarini is the Director of the CVR.
More than 20 principal investigators, and their associated teams, make up the research core of the CVR giving a total staff and student complement in excess of 130. This is supplemented with affiliates from The Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, Health Protection Scotland and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, thus creating a critical mass of researchers dedicated to the study of human and animal viral diseases. The CVR is embedded within the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow which provides excellent research opportunities to investigate virus-host interactions and immune response to virus infection.
A defining feature of the CVR is its breadth of expertise ranging from molecular virology to in vivo pathogenesis, virus-cell interactions, viral immunology, viral ecology, viral oncology, clinical and veterinary virology, viral diagnostics, virus epidemiology, mathematical modelling and bioinformatics.
The CVR’s research programmes cover the themes of emerging viruses including arboviruses, innate and intrinsic immunity to virus infection, hepatitis C virus, viruses and cancer, structural virology, viral genomics and bioinformatics.
The CVR is primarily funded by the Medical Research Council, the UK’s leading publicly funded biomedical research organisation, with investigators holding additional external awards from many national and international funders.
The CVR provides a unique research environment for both young and established scientists wishing to apply a holistic approach to virology research with studies spanning the molecular, structural and cellular levels, through to the individual host and affected population.