Laboratory of Viral and Cellular Genetics

We study how virus-cell interactions lead to antiviral resistance

+ retroviruses, + endogenous retroviruses, + receptors for retrovirus entry, + restriction factors, + antivirus innate immunity, + gene editing in chicken, + syncytins, + epigenetic suppression of retroviruses

Jiří Hejnar

Group leader

jiri.hejnar@img.cas.cz

Scientific Career – Milestones

since 1997: Research Group Leader, IMG, Prague

1996-1997: Postdoctoral Fellow, IMG Prague & MRC Beatson Institute Glasgow, UK

1995: PhD, IMG, Prague

Comprehensive analysis of host cell receptors for retroviruses

Our discoveries of new receptors for avian leukosis virus and comparison of receptor variants among closely related galliform birds shed light on the virus-host coevolution and mechanisms of interspecies virus transmission. [pubmed] [doi]

Antiviral resistance induced by host cell gene editing

We found that editing of the chicken NHE1 (Na+/H+ Exchanger 1) gene by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homologous recombination leads to a non-functional receptor and resistance of chickens to ALV-J (avian leukosis virus type J) infection. [pubmed] [doi]

Paleovirology and the discovery of molecular fossils

We have discovered endogenous lentiviruses and deltaretroviruses (the oldest HIV- and HTLV-related molecular fossils) in the genome of various mammalian lineages. [pubmed] [doi]