#  Michael Desai Awarded ERC Synergy Grant 

 





November 06, 2025

 

 

     ![Michael Desai](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/oeb/files/michael_desai_square.jpeg?h=00e400e4&itok=jvRACDEg) 

 



 

Congratulations to Professor Michael Desai who has been awarded a European Research Council [ERC Synergy Grant](https://www.uni-koeln.de/en/university/news/news/news-detail/erc-synergy-grant-for-physicist-michael-laessig-and-virologist-florian-klein). The award is in collaboration with Professors Michael Lässig and Professor Florian Klein at the University of Cologne, and Professor Aleksandra Walczak at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France.

Synergy Grants provide funding over a period of six years to excellent researchers working together as a team on a project. Desai and collaborators were selected for their project, "CoEvolve," which investigates the co-evolution of viruses, i.e. the mutual adaptation of viruses and the immune system. The project aims to predict how pathogens evolve in the future and how the the immune defense can be optimally adapted to this change. The team will focus on influenza and SARS-CoV-2, both causes of sever respiratory diseases and both subject to rapid change.



 

 

 



 

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