Dr Bart Haagmans | Working Group Leader, Department of Viroscience and Co-coordinator at ZAPI
Erasmus M.C.

Bart Haagmans did his training at the Utrecht University and holds a PhD from the same university. Currently, he is a workgroup leader at the department of Viroscience of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. His main interest is the pathogenesis of emerging viral infections including SARS and the novel MERS coronavirus. He was involved in the characterization of the MERS-CoV genome and development of molecular and serological assays to detect MERS-CoV, but also different other viruses. Recently, he identified the receptor used by MERS-CoV to infect cells and was involved in studies that led to the identification of the intermediate host of MERS-CoV, the dromedary camel. Ultimately this led to the development of a MERS-CoV vaccine that is able to reduce the excretion of MERS-CoV in the upper respiratory tract of dromedaries