Dr Steven Van Borm

Sciensano, Belgium
Senior Scientist, Virology Department

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DEFEND role: Work Packager Leader for
WP2

Steven obtained his PhD in Biology (Molecular Ecology) from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He joined the Virology Department of Sciensano in 2003, successively working as project scientist and senior scientist, and leading a centralised molecular virology expert pool from 2012 onward. He is currently working in the Avian Virology and Immunology team, focusing on the molecular characterisation of avian viruses including Influenza and Newcastle disease viruses.

His main activities are in the field of the development and validation of molecular diagnostic assays for livestock priority virus detection, and in the genetic characterisation and molecular epidemiology of animal viruses. This includes participation in the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), NRL and EU RL activities of the Department. Over the last 10 years, he has been involved in the application of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data to veterinary virology.

He coordinated two European research projects on molecular epidemiology and sequencing technologies (one EMIDA EraNet project and one project under the first call for research projects of the EJP-OneHealth H2020 cofund project) and was partner in several International and National research projects.