CONSORTIUM

Immunoconcept is focusing on questions related to the causes of immune competence deterioration during the course of adult life. Besides chronological age, weakening of the immune system can result from clinical situations associated to an accelerated immune ageing such as infections, transplantation and cancer. Improving our comprehension of immune vulnerability and ageing mechanisms will impact our appreciation of immune responses in these contexts and provide cues for their control. 

In HORUS, Immunoconcept will coordinate the global project and be involved in the analysis of αβ and γδ T cells both in patients, to contribute to the obtention of a signature associated with CMV control, and in in vitro and in vivo model, to further knowledge the role of these cells in CMV infection in the context of immunosuppression.

Université De Bordeaux (UB)

Address
CNRS UMR 5164 – Université de Bordeaux
Site de Carreire, Bâtiment BBS
2 rue Hoffmann Martinot
33076 Bordeaux Cedex
France

Social Media
Twitter

CHU Bordeaux focuses on questions related to the monitoring of CMV immune response in kidney transplant recipients.

In HORUS, CHU Bordeaux will coordinate the elaboration of a well-phenotyped cohort of solid organ solid transplant recipients (lung, kidney, heart and liver) with clinical, viral and immunological characterization at day 0 of the transplantation, longitudinally after transplantation and at additional time-points in case of CMV infection. This cohort will lead to a bio-collection and samples from this bio-collection will be sent to scientific partners to perform all together a global signature associated to CMV control.

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Bordeaux (CHUB)

Address
12 rue Dubernat 33404 Talence cedex France

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen’s Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplantation has a long-term focus on transplant infectious disease research with the main topic being cytomegalovirus infection. Their research team has performed a number of clinical studies including original RCTs to better understand the impact of CMV in kidney transplant recipients and its optimal prevention. Many of these studies have been cited in TTS international guidelines for CMV management.

The role of Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen team in HORUS is the participation in the formation of a study group of both de-novo (day 0) kidney transplant patients and patients with CMV infection. Clinical follow-up and blood sample processing for biobank will be performed on patients enrolled on the HORUS project.

Univerzta Karlova (CU)

Address
Alej Svobody 76, Pilsen, 32300, Czech Republic

Contacts
Prof. Jindřich Fínek M.D., Ph.D.
Prof. Tomáš Reischig M.D., Ph.D.

Social Media
LinkedIn

At the heart of the largest region of France, with just under 6 million inhabitants and with one of the greatest rates of annual growth in Europe, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU - University Hospital) of Toulouse is the referral facility in the region. It comprises more than 150 public and private institutions located at several sites around the city. Toulouse University Hospital is the largest employer in the region, fulfilling its mission of care, prevention, education and research with nearly 1,500 doctors and 15,500 hospital staff. Organized around 15 clinical centres, it supports about 280,000 patients and 850,000 consultants annually, ranking it fourth in France among the French CHU. CHU Toulouse coordinates national or is associated with 19 reference centres for rare diseases and 68 competence centres. The quality of medical care and research at the CHU of Toulouse has been at the top of the chats of the French national press for more than 15 years.

CHU of Toulouse is involved in HORUS project as a Medical Centre providing samples from patients.

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse (CHUT)

Address
2, rue Viguerie, 31059 Toulouse, France

Contacts

Nassim KAMAR, Nephrology department coordinator

Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP)

Paul Brousse Hospital is the first liver transplant centre in France and has a lot of experience in CMV infection in liver transplant patients.

Necker Hospital: Clinicians, clinical research associates and paramedics staff working in the Necker renal transplant service are used to taking part in different interventional and observational studies such as HORUS project. As one of France's main renal transplant centres, we aim to include at least 50 patients in HORUS project.

La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital: With approximately 90 transplantations per year, the Department of cardiac surgery of La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital is the leading heart transplant program in Europe. The department will be involved in recruiting heart transplant recipients and their follow-up.

Address
Paul Brousse Hospital : 12, avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier, Villejuif, 94800, France

Necker Hospital : 149, rue de Sèvres, Paris, 75015, France

La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital: 56, bd Vincent Auriol, Paris, 75013, France

Contact
Faouzi Saliba (Paul Brousse Hospital)
Guillaume Coutance (La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital)
Camille Roger (Necker Hospital)

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

The Department of Transplant and Infection Immunology was founded in 2009 at the Medical Faculty of Saarland University as an interdisciplinary department to strengthen and combine basic research in immunology with clinically oriented translational aspects. Martina Sester PhD is a professor of immunology and director of the department, specialises in T-cell immunology, with relevance to graft rejection, and clinically relevant pathogens, with specific interest on immunology. 

Reseach focuses include antigen-specific immune regulation in immunocompromised patients, translational aspects of immunomonitoring of infectious complications and graft rejection and the analysis of CMV-specific T cells for prediction of CMV complications. 

The Saarland University team will be involved in the conceptual design of biomarkers to be analyzed in WP1-3, and will have an active part in the validation processes within WP4.

Universitat Des Saarlandes (USAAR)

Address
Kirrberger Str. – building 77, Homburg, 66421, Germany

Contacts
Martina Sester

Social Media
Twitter - department
Twitter - institution

Representatives
Dr. Tina Schmidt

γδ T cells are unconventional T cells that express a γδ T cell receptor (TCR) on their cell surface instead of an αβ TCR as on conventional CD4+ and CD8+ αβ T cells. γδ T cells can have several roles, including protection against infections and tumors. The general approach of our current research is to obtain insight into human γδ T cells by applying sophisticated molecular biological techniques (such as TCR repertoire analysis) on clinical samples. Important in vivo findings are further investigated in vitro to understand molecular mechanisms. In parallel, mouse models are used to address particular research questions. The main focus of our research is the role and ontogeny of γδ T cells in early life. Furthermore, γδ T cells have recently been in the spotlight of innovative anti-tumour therapies thanks to their unique features. Our group also investigates these cells in cancer context, usually in collaboration with other research teams.


In HORUS, we will apply our expertise in TCR profiling (αβ and γδ TCR) in order to obtain insight into the T cell response towards cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection of solid-organ transplant patients.

Universite Libre De Bruxelles (ULB)

Address
Rue Adrienne Bolland 8, Gosselies, 6041, Belgium

Contacts
David Vermijlen

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV)

The LIV investigates human pathogenic viruses with a goal of identifying virus-related diseases and developing new therapeutic approaches.

Within HORUS, the LIV will investigate the role of NK cells in the control and outcome of HCMV infection. 

Address
Martinistraße 52, Hamburg, 20251, Germany

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (CIRI)

We belong to the NOPAB Normal and Pathogenic B cells team). Our team is part of the CIRI, which brings together 24 research teams in infectiology and immunology located in Lyon, France. For many years, we have developed world-renowned expertise in the study of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in allograft rejection after organ transplantation. We carry out translational research based on cohorts of kidney transplant patients from our centre whose samples are analyzed in the laboratory and in vivo mouse models of heterotopic heart transplantation.

In the HORUS project, first, we will participate in the constitution of the clinical cohort by including kidney transplant patients in the day 0 and infected patients' cohorts. On the laboratory side, we will study the CMV specific naive immune response in the context of immunosuppression. For this, we will rely on in vivo murine models in which murine CMV will be transmitted either by injecting infected allogeneic cells or by heart transplants from mice latently infected with CMV. We will also develop a humanised bone marrow-liver-thymus model (huBLT) of mice to study the immune response to human CMV. This latest model will also give us the opportunity to test targeted therapies against human CMV.

Address
50, avenue Tony Garnier
69007 Lyon

Contacts
Alice Koenig

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives
Dr Alice Koenig
Dr Marina Boudigou

The Institute of Systems Immunology was established at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in 2021 with a goal to understand the immunological chances and challenges emerging from the vast diversity of > 10e15 potential adaptive immune receptor combinations in T cells and B cells. Through the development of systems for high-throughput sequencing of T cell receptor repertoires, they monitor T cell dynamics during immune reactions to pathogens and in the course of autoimmune disease. 

During HORUS, The Institute of Systems Immunology will perform single cell transcriptome and single cell TCR analyses of Tx patient samples to provide TCR repertoire coupled to transcriptomic data for αβ and γδ T cells. 

Universitaetsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)

Address
Falkenried 94, Hamburg, 20251, Germany

Contacts
i.prinz@uke.de

Social Media
Twitter - Immonology
Twitter - UKE Hamburg
Twitter - DGfI dgfi.org

Representatives

ESOT was founded 40 years ago and are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in organ transplantation. Facilitating a wealth of international clinical trials and research collaborations over the years, ESOT remain committed to their primary aim of improving patient outcomes in transplantation. With a community of over 8,000 members from around the world, ESOT is a highly influential international organisation and the facilitator of the biennial congress which hosts approximately 3,500 experts who come to meet to explore and discuss the latest scientific research. ESOT works with leading transplantation experts, and has an impressive track record in supporting research, education, and European policy changes.

The European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT)

Address
ESOT
Westerdoksdijk 423 - 1013 BX Amsterdam - The Netherlands

Contacts
Devi Mey
Chiara Parisotto
Luke Paskins

Representatives
Luciano Potena 

Parean Biotechnologies is an immunology, applied to oncology, auto-immune diseases and neurology expert.

Parean Biotechnologies support academics and biotech, to develop new biomarkers or target. Its platform includes wet lab operations (cytometry, cell sorting, RNA extraction and library preparation) and data science (bio-informatics, biostatistics, multi-omics data integration), in bulk or single-cell processes.

Within the HORUS project, Parean will lead data science operations, and perform bioinformatics, biostatistics and the data integration of various datasets.

Parean Biotechnologies (PAREAN)

Address
7 allee metis, Saint-Malo, 35400, France

Contacts
Marwan Touati CEO

Social Media
LinkedIn

Representatives
Hang Phuong Pham
Chief Data Officer

Valentin Quiniou
Chief Scientific Officer

Marwan Touati
CEO

The IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna (IRCCS AOU BO) is the first hospital in Bologna, with over 400 years of history, and ranking 60th among the World's Best Hospitals in 2022 and 3rd among the Italian’s Best Hospital 2022. The IRCCS AOU BO hospital is the official venue of the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Bologna UNIBO) and represent a city campus in the heart of Bologna. The IRCCS AOU BO annually admits approximately 53,000 patients and performs an estimated 3,700,000 outpatient visits. Its research activities encompass all phases of translational research from T1 to T4, in particular (but not limited to) in “oncology” and of both “stem cells and solid organ and transplants”. 

The IRCCS AOUBO is very active in all research domains, with more than 1300 publications per year (JIP > 8377.8) and outstanding results in attracting competitive research funding at both the European and national levels. At a regional level, IRCCS AOU BO accounts for more than 52 funded projects in 2021 (12M€) and has obtained funds for 13 European Projects within FP7, H2020 and Horizon Europe programmes. 

IRCCS AOU BO is a regional referral site for solid organ transplantation (SOT) with more than 400 solid organ transplants in 2021. In 2021 and 2022, IRCCS AOU BO has the centre performing the highest number of heart transplants in Italy. 

The management of patients on the waiting list for SOT includes multidisciplinary care pathways involving professionals from different Medical Units, and specific research effort is dedicated to the implementation of care strategies or innovative approaches to managing patients on the waiting list with severe organ failure. 

The main research interests of Heart Failure and Transplant include the detection and quantification of reliable biomarkers descriptive of the biological mechanisms of organ injury to guide the decisional cascade for SOT and customisation of therapeutic and diagnostic approaches by means of immune monitoring and telemedicine. 

In Horus IRCCS AOU Bo will contribute to the enrollment and follow-up of patients in the HORUS COHORT study.

IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna (IRCCS AOUBO)

Address
Via Albertoni, 15
40138 Bologna - Italy

Social Media
Instagram

Foch Hospital is a private health facility of collective interest (non-profit) of almost 600 beds welcoming patients of surgery and medicine in complete hospitalization or outpatient hospitalization. It is also a University Hospital, linked to the University Versailles Saint-Quentin-en Yvelines (as part of Saclay-University). Foch Hospital also has a Clinical Research and Innovation Department (DRCI) that can promote clinical studies of drugs and medical devices, and a Center for Biological Ressources (CRB) that can manage human samples collected from patients. Foch Hospital and Pr. Antoine Roux have been recognised for many years as a centre of expertise in pulmonology and transplant surgery and care. 

In HORUS, Foch Hospital participates mostly in WP1 (T1.2) dedicated to HORUS cohort constitution, as a recruitment centre.

Hopital FOCH

Address
40, Rue Worth
92150 Suresnes - France

Social Media
Twitter
Linkedin

Representatives
Antoine Roux

CNR Herpesvirus specialises in the research topic of cytomegalovirus resistance with experience in virology and the diagnosis and treatment of Cytomegalovirus infection. 

CNR Herpesvirus’ HORUS tasks will include the detection of cytomegalovirus reactivations, surveying for resistance, and NGS analysis of minority strains and specific CMV genes variants that could favor CMV replication.

Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique CNRS (CNRS)

Address
2 ave ML King, Limoges, 87000, France

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives
Sebastien Hantz: Virologist

Emilie Guerin: Ingeneer NGS meical genomic platform in CHU Limoges

Valentin Tillooy: Bioinformatics CNR Herpesviruses

Melissa Gomes-Mayeras: Ingeneer CNR Herpesvirus

NST Cardiometabolisme Nutrition ICAN (ICAN)

IHU ICAN, as linked third party to APHP will be responsible for recruiting heart transplanted patients for the HORUS clinical trial (WP1). Participation will be organised under the supervision of cardiologist Dr Coutance, working the “service de chirurgie thoracique” of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, headed by Pr Pascal Leprince. 

Address
Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière,
Pavillon Claude Bernard -1ier étage, 47-83 boulevard de l'hôpital,
Paris, 75013, France

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives
Saadia Jerbi, Clinical Research Technician

Sara Cipriani, head of ICAN Biological Resources Center

Aurélie Foucher, grant officer and project manager

Institut National De La Sante Et De La Recherche Medicale (INSERM)/ Centre Hospitalier Universitaire De Limoges (CHU)/Universite De Limoges (UNILIM)

 Virologist, in charge of diagnostic and treatment for Cytomegalovirus infection , research topic specialized in cytomegalovirus resistance 

Horus tasks : Detection of cytomegalovirus reactivations, Survey for resistance 

NGS analysis for minority strains and specific CMV genes variants that could favor CMV replication

Address
2 ave ML King, Limoges, 87000, France

Website

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives
Sebastien Hantz, virologist

Emilie Guerin , Ingeneer NGS meical genomic platform in CHU Limoges

Valentin Tilloy Bioinformatics CNR Herpesviruses

Melissa Gomes-Mayeras : Ingeneer CNR herpesvirus 

PhD Student, to recruit

(HUVH) Vall d’Hebron University Hospital is the sum of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. The hospital covers northern Barcelona, with a population of 430.000 people. The Nefrology Research Group focuses on two main areas of interest, which are related to Solid Organ Transplantation and especially Kidney and clinical Nephrology. We tackle these areas from an innovative perspective, both basic-experimental and mechanistic, always with a translational goal. On the one hand, we investigate, develop, and use novel diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to decipher and target the main molecular and immune mechanisms of transplant rejection as well as the immune susceptibility to opportunistic infections and malignancies. We admit 1,000 patients annually, hold 15,000 consultations and have a peritoneal dialysis programme, a haemodialysis unit, and extracorporeal cleansing techniques, and in addition, over the last year, we carried out 130 kidney transplants. We are a Spanish National Health System (CSUR) Reference Centre in complex glomerular diseases. VHIR, as an affiliated entity, is a public sector institution that promotes and develops biomedical research, innovation, and teaching at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. 
HUVH/ VHIR is the WP 4 leader in “validation of immune markers associated with CMV infections, associated to poor outcomes during CMV infections and associated long-term outcomes” and Task Participant in WP 1 for contributions to the HORUS cohort. 

Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (VHIR)

Address
Passeig. Vall d’Hebron 119 Edifici Mediterrània 2a planta
08035 Barcelona

Website
www.vhir.org

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives
Oriol Bestard Matamoros

Lausanne University Hospital is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland, with Geneva, Bern, Basel and Zurich. With 16 clinical and medico-technical departments with numerous services, the CHUV is renowned for its academic achievements in health care, research, and teaching. The CHUV is also a well-known center of medical education and research thanks to its collaboration with the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Together, these institutions form a vast campus in the Lake Geneva region.

Prof Oriol Manuel is a transplant infectious diseases specialist and clinical research scientist. His field of expertise is the evaluation of preventive strategies against viral infections in transplant recipients. 

He is the WP5 leader and responsible for designing and implementing a proof-of-concept clinical trial (HORUS-SCOPE) for the clinical application of the HORUS research output. 

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV)

Address
Bugnon 46, Lausanne, 1011, Switzerland

Contacts
Oriol Manuel

Social Media
Twitter
LinkedIn

Representatives