Group leader: 

Prof. Dr. Stefan Taube

Building 62 Room 211/228

Office: +49-451-500-4086
Lab: +49-451-500-4094
Fax: +49-451-500-3637

Email: taube(at)vuz.uni-luebeck.de

Technicians:

Katja Thiele-Bössel 

Noroviruses are members of the Caliciviridae family. They non-enveloped viruses and contain a single-stranded plus-sense RNA genome. Noroviruses are emerging pathogens and have been isolated from a variety of different species including cows, dogs, mice, pigs, and sheep. Usually noroviruses are highly species-specific and interspecies transmission or zoonosis is likely to be a rare event.

Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are responsible for the majority of acute viral gastroenteritis worldwide and affect all age groups. The Norwalk agent isolated during an gastroenteritis outbreak in a school in Norwalk Ohio in 1968 was the first norovirus identified. Noroviruses are highly contagious and very stable in the environment. Transmission occurs through contaminated food or water and person-to-person contact via the fecal-oral route or virus-containing aerosols. Infection is rapid and in healthy people usually short-lived. Common symptoms include abdominal cramps, watery diarrhea, and projectile vomiting. However, infection can also be asymptomatic. Complications can occur especially in elderly and immunocompromised patients. The virus is difficult to contain because viral shedding can occur for weeks after symptoms have subsided. 

Currently there is no licensed norovirus vaccine or antiviral available to treat or prevent norovirus infection. Hand-washing with soap and water and sanitizing surfaces with bleach are effective to prevent norovirus transmission. Alcohol based sanitizers are not as effective.

Little is known about human norovirus biology due to a lack of an efficient tissue culture system or small animal model. This has severely hampered norovirus research and basic questions including viral tropism, viral life cycle and pathogenesis still need to be answered. Without an understanding of norovirus biology and appropriate molecular tools there is no way to develop antiviral therapies or vaccines or test them for safety and efficacy. Today murine noroviruses (MNV) are the only noroviruses that can be replicated in tissue culture and studied in a small animal model. MNV replicates in murine macrophages and dendritic cells and infect mice, come with a comprehensive set of molecular tools, including an efficient tissue culture system, animal model and a reverse genetics system allowing the generation of recombinant virus.