The INDIRA project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation as part of the call for proposals "Big Data in the Life Sciences of the Future" and coordinated by TRAIN.

Infections with the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) occur worldwide and are seasonally more frequent during the winter months. By the end of the second year of life, almost all children had contact with the pathogen at least once. In most cases, the infection of small children leads to a mild cold that heals untreated. However, in about 1% of children, the progression of the disease leads to complications that result in inflammation of the upper and lower respiratory tract. These children are hospitalized and may need to be ventilated, in rare cases the infection can be fatal.

Factors that cause such complicated courses of disease are incompletely understood. INDIRA aims to identify risk factors for complicated infections that will help to optimally protect susceptible children and find starting points for therapy.

More information can be found on the TRAIN project page.