People with obesity, diabetes, or cardiovascular diseases often experience more severe consequences of viral infections, but the biological reasons are not well understood. Lipid droplets (LDs) are small fat-containing structures in cells that are altered during both metabolic disease and infection. This project studies how LDs change during viral infection and how this affects the body’s early immune response.
Using human cells, organoids, animal models, and clinical samples, Dr. Myeni will identify LD features linked to severe disease and investigate whether modulating LD dynamics and composition can improve antiviral responses. The findings will inform future host-directed treatment strategies.
The Junior Principal Investigator Talent Grant was introduced last year by Leiden University Medical Center to invest in researchers in the early stages of establishing their own research groups. Each year, five researchers ranked among the top 10% in their field are chosen to receive the grant. Awardees receive four years of support from the central research budget, with funding totaling €850,000 per researcher.