Lieve Naesens heads the research team on influenza- and coronaviruses at the Rega Institute (KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Belgium). After receiving a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Leuven in 1992, she continued working at this university where she is Professor in virology since 2003. She has >30 years of experience in antiviral drug development, from initial discovery to mechanistic and preclinical evaluation. She was involved in the discovery of the leading HIV drug tenofovir and has more than 280 publications including in Nature, PNAS, Journal of Virology and Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Her current research on influenza- and coronaviruses focusses on small molecule inhibitors of viral entry and viral genome replication. She has a particular interest in the influenza virus hemagglutinin and polymerase, and has discovered inhibitors of these viral proteins with relevance for pharmaceutical development. Her team collaborates with medicinal chemists, structural biologists, biochemists and virologists, to design innovative antivirals, define their mechanism of action, and translate this knowledge into a better understanding of viral replication strategies.

Lieve serves as an expert reviewer for (inter) national funding and governmental agencies, pharmaceutical industry and leading scientific journals. She is editor-in-chief for Current Opinion in Virology, on the editorial board of Antiviral Research and a board member of the Belgian Society for Virology.

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