GELIFES Seminars - Emmie de Wit

Emmie de Wit (NIH, USA)

A rapid response to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2

Making past experiences count

In December of 2019, we started to hear rumors of a new virus that was causing pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Soon, the rumors indicated that the new virus may be a coronavirus. In January 2020, my lab developed a plan to leverage our expertise on MERS-CoV to address essential research questions if this virus was really a coronavirus. As soon as the first SARS-CoV-2 sequence became available on January 10, we started ordering specific reagents and writing study proposals. Since then, my lab has solely focused on responding to the pandemic. Due to my extensive experience in studying emerging viruses and testing countermeasures, we were able to rapidly provide data that enabled clinical trials for these countermeasures to move forward. We quickly developed an animal model of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the rhesus macaque. This animal model was shared with the World Health Organization in February of 2020 and has since been used extensively all over the globe for the preclinical testing of medical countermeasures. My lab focused on testing the efficacy of remdesivir in this model; data that were essential for FDA EUA and licensing. We also contributed to preclinical data on the ChadOx-vectored vaccine (now AstraZeneca) and hydroxychloroquine. Most recently, we have focused on determining the risk posed by SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, and we have completed an extensive, multi-omics study aimed at understanding why increased age is such an important risk factor for developing severe COVID-19.

Biosketch
Dr. Emmie de Wit is the Chief of the Molecular Pathogenesis Unit in the Laboratory of Virology of NIAID, where her lab focuses on emerging respiratory viruses, aiming to combine pathogenesis studies with detailed molecular analyses to identify molecular determinants of severe respiratory tract disease within the virus and the host. Dr. de Wit received her Ph.D. in virology in 2006 from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her research there focused on the replication, pathogenesis and transmission of influenza A virus. In 2009, she moved to the Laboratory of Virology of NIAID in Hamilton, Montana to work in the biosafety level 4 laboratory there. Here, she focused on the pathogenesis of and countermeasures against Nipah virus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and the 1918 H1N1 influenza A virus (Spanish flu). In 2014-2015, Dr. de Wit spent 4 months in a field lab in Monrovia, Liberia in charge of patient diagnostics for several Ebola Treatment Units in the area, to help contain the devastating Ebola epidemic in Liberia. Since the emergence of COVID-19, Dr. de Wit has focused her research on SARS-CoV-2, developing animal models and using those for testing of medical countermeasures and gaining a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Amongst other accomplishments, the data generated in Dr. de Wit’s lab contributed to the licensing of remdesivir as an antiviral treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Link to seminar