Sandra Ciesek acts as project leader. She is an expert in clinical virology and gastroenterology. In this project her team will screen identified compounds for antiviral activity against different coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV or OC43 using authentic virus strains under different biosafety levels. The institute has developed diverse workflows of cell-based assays to determine antiviral effects using large-scale quantitative measures such as automated microscopy, quantitative PCRs or tissue culture infectious dose assays.