C.M. van der Hoek PhD

PhD C.M. van der Hoek

Position

Associate Professor

Main activities

Research

Specialisation

Virology

Focus of research

There are a variety of diseases for which involvement of a viral pathogen is suspected. Lia van der Hoek has developed a virus-discovery technique that can identify any RNA and DNA virus, in culture or directly in clinical samples (VIDISCA). The method is based on the cDNA amplified restriction fragment length polymorphism technique combined with Next Generation Sequencing and it is successfully used to identify several unknown pathogens among which the human coronavirus HCoV-NL63, Scale Drop Disease Virus and the virus causing Congenital Tremor in piglets. Besides the standard VIDISCA Lia van der Hoek has developed two highly specialized techniques that are able to identify viruses that so far were extremely difficult to recognize: the viruses that share no or very limited identity to known viruses. Via comparisons and antibody capture VIDISCA these viruses are now visible for future research.

Following identification of a virus, a culture system is essential for further investigations. Pseudostratified human airway epithelium is a sophisticated culture system and the best imitation of the human trachea. Lia van der Hoek has used this system to propagate human bocavirus, and human coronavirus-HKU1, two recently identified respiratory viruses for which no culture system was available.

The unbiased identification of viruses allows not only the detection of new viruses but also the description of the entire "virome", which is the pool of viruses present at a certain site of the body (e.g. the gut or the circulation). An example of the virome research of Lia van der Hoek is the investigation of blood of pregnant mothers, of whom it was known whether the offspring did, or did not, develop schizophrenia. This study revealed that a limited virome in the circulation of the pregnant mother is associated with the development of schizophrenia in the offspring.