“Bat1K Project: Understanding the Key to Preventing Future Pandemics with Bat Immune System Study”

It Bat1Kproject, a global gene study aimed at understanding the unique immune system of bats, already started in 2017, so before the Corona pandemic. It now appears that this research may hold the key to preventing future pandemics.

Bats are known to harbor several deadly viruses, including SARS, MERS and Sars-CoV-2, without ill effects. Their immune systems have evolved to deal with infections without causing harmful inflammation because they can fly, which takes a lot of energy. Research into bats’ immune systems may help develop drugs that mimic their behavior in humans and prepare us for future pandemics.

What makes bats so special?

Bats are unique animals for several reasons. They are the only mammals that can actually fly, have an incredibly long life span for their size, and exhibit a wide variety of shapes, sizes and eating habits. Some bats catch fish, others eat insects, and three species are known to feed on blood. All of these characteristics make bats a fascinating subject for scientific research, especially their immune systems and their ability to pick up numerous deadly viruses without serious reactions.

Understanding the bat immune system

Bats’ immune systems have evolved over 80 million years, dampening their inflammatory responses. This is a direct result of their ability to fly, which requires a lot of energy. Inflammation is not as frequent or severe in bats as it is in other animals, allowing them to carry various viruses without dangerous reactions. Their unique immune systems are now being closely studied to potentially develop drugs that mimic their behavior in humans, which could help us prepare for future pandemics.

Bat1K project: A global genomics initiative

Understanding how the bat immune system works is a primary goal of the Bat1K project, founded by Emma Teeling, a zoologist and geneticist, and Sonja Vernes, a neurogeneticist. The project consortium involves institutions such as University College Dublin, the University of Bristol, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The project’s ambitious goal is to map the genomes of all living bat species and make the data publicly available, yielding potentially invaluable insights into disease resistance, healthy aging, ecosystem function, sensory perception, communication and genome structure of mammals.

Progress and challenges in bat research

So far, the Bat1K project has published the genomes of several bat species, including the greater horseshoe bat, the Egyptian fruit bat, the griffon spear bat, the greater mouse-eared bat, the Kuhl’s pipistrelle, and the velvety free-tailed bat. Their goal for the coming year is to sequence 27 additional genomes, representative of each bat family. While significant progress has been made in bat genomic research, challenges remain.

Preparing for the next pandemic

Studying bat immune systems could be critical to preparing for future pandemics, as they may hold the key to understanding how we can adapt our own immune systems to better fight deadly viruses. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a renewed interest for bat immunology and for calls for coordinated efforts to study their immune systems for the prevention of pandemics. Emma Teeling: “We need to be prepared for the next pandemic, and if bats can pinpoint ways to quickly modify our immune responses, it will show how important they are to our world.”