Dr Nerea Irigoyen

Dr Nerea Irigoyen is a Group Leader in the Division of Virology. Her research focuses on understanding how viruses control the production of their proteins and how this process shapes viral pathogenicity and disease.

Nerea studied Pharmacy at the University of Navarra and completed her PhD in molecular virology at the Spanish National Biotechnology Centre (CNB-CSIC) in Madrid. Her doctoral work examined the assembly and maturation of the infectious bursal disease virus capsid. In 2010 she moved to Cambridge as a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Ian Brierley, where she studied non-canonical translation mechanisms in RNA viruses including coronaviruses, retroviruses and flaviviruses.

In 2018, Nerea established her independent research group to investigate how viral protein translation influences virus–host interactions, viral pathogenicity and disease outcomes. Her laboratory uses cutting-edge approaches including ribosome profiling and RNA sequencing to understand how viruses exploit the host cell translation machinery.

A major focus of the group is Zika virus, an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus associated with neurological complications including congenital brain abnormalities. The team investigates how viral gene expression and genome translation influence viral replication, tissue tropism and disease severity.

Key research areas include:

Understanding the role of Zika virus genome translation in viral pathogenicity and disease

• Understanding how virus translation is regulated

• Understanding how changes in virus genome translation influence virulence, disease and viral tropism

Using advanced models of infection, including human cerebral organoids, the group studies how different Zika virus lineages interact with developing brain cells. This work aims to uncover the molecular drivers of viral neuropathogenesis and identify new targets for antiviral therapies.

Nerea was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award to support her research into Zika virus-induced neuropathogenesis and neurotropism. Her broader research programme also investigates translation mechanisms in other RNA viruses, including coronaviruses.