Johan Neyts is full professor of Virology at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He teaches virology at the medical school and at the school of dentistry. The lab has a long-standing expertise in the development of antivirals strategies and drugs against emerging and neglected viral infections (such as dengue and other flaviviruses, Chikungunya and other alphaviruses, enteroviruses, noroviruses, HEV and rabies). A second focus of the lab is the development of a novel vaccine technology platform technology, the PLLAV (Plasmid Launched Live Attenuated Virus) vaccine approach. This technology allows to rapidly engineer highly thermostable vaccines against multiple viral pathogens. Johan Neyts is president of the International Society for Antiviral Research (www.isar-icar.com). Four classes of antivirals discovered in his laboratory have been licensed to major pharmaceutical companies (two on HCV, one on dengue and one on rhino/enteroviruses). He published >485 papers in peer reviewed journals and has given ~210 invited lectures.
