Lia van der Hoek

The Heine-Medin Medal 2007 was awarded at the Third European Congress of Virology in Nürnberg to Dr. Lia van der Hoek. She is currently an associate professor at the Department of Medical Microbiology of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. Lia van der Hoek started her scientific career in the HIV field as a PhD student and as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2001 she initiated her own research line around the theme of virus discovery. She developed the novel virus discovery method VIDISCA. This technique can detect any RNA or DNA virus, and in 2003 a novel human coronavirus HCoV-NL63 was identified in a child with bronchiolitis. At that time there were only 3 human coronaviruses known among which the emerging SARS-CoV. It soon became clear that HCoV-NL63 has spread worldwide. Infection is associated with upper and lower respiratory tract infections and Lia van der Hoek recognized that an HCoV-NL63 infection has a strong associated with croup in young children. Further research by Lia van der Hoek revealed that the virus is not an emerging virus, but, instead, previously unrecognized. Lia van der Hoek was involved in studies that identified the receptor of HCoV-NL63. This receptor – angiotensin converting enzyme 2 – is also used by SARS-CoV to enter the target cell. Considering the homology with SARS-CoV and the clear association with respiratory illness, Lia van der Hoek evaluated antiviral compounds and described several that efficiently inhibit viral infection. At present Lia van der Hoek has focused her work towards the various human coronaviruses and the continuous search for unknown viruses.