Sandra Junglen
Elected Member
Institue of Virology
Charité – Universitätsmedizin
Berlin, Germany
Current term (2023): Second
Biography
The research of Sandra Junglen at the Institute of Virology at the Charité Berlin, Germany, focuses on the genetic diversity of arthropod-associated viruses and on ecological mechanisms that influence their geographic spread and emergence. She and her group have characterized numerous novel viruses, including the discovery of novel RNA virus genera and families. She has made significant contributions to the discovery and characterization of insect-specific viruses. For example, her group was the first to describe insect-specific bunyaviruses and to detect a previously unknown clade of insect-specific flaviviruses within the pathogenic flaviviruses. Furthermore, she and her team could show that St Louis encephalitis virus existed in sylvatic habitats in Central America and spread to North America driven by anthropogenic ecosystem disturbance, where it caused numerous outbreaks and epidemics. She has published more than 50 papers, is a member of the ICTV Executive Committee, and has received grants from the German Research Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
For more information:
https://virologie-ccm.charite.de/en/research/ag_junglen/
