NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biotec Pharmacon said on Friday that its subsidiary ArcticZymes has been awarded a €460,000 ($524,000) grant over the next four years to participate in the Virus-X EU Consortium, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 European Framework Program for Research and Innovation.
The project — Viral Metagenomics for Innovation Value, or Virus-X — is a collaboration between 15 European research institutes, universities, and companies, with a total budget of nearly €8 million, the company said. The project aims to advance understanding of viral ecosystems, diversity, and virus-host interplay by sequencing the metagenomes of various biotopes. ArcticZymes is one of the industrial partners that will participate in developing and bringing new viral enzymes to the market.
"We are excited to participate in the new granted Virus-X EU Consortium," said ArcticZymes Managing Director Jethro Holter in a statement. "It will allow ArcticZymes to expand its access to novel molecular enzymes via the bioprospecting of a wide diversity of viral genomes."