X.J. Meng receives prestigious MERIT Award to study hepatitis E virus

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

To build upon a quarter-century of world-renowned research in zoonotic viral diseases, X.J. Meng has been rewarded with a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award. 

“This is a huge honor and privilege,” said Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. “It is really gratifying to know that the program officers and other officials at NIH thought that the body of a work we've been doing here in the veterinary college over the last 25 years deserves long-term, stable support. It’s a massive, huge honor.” 

The MERIT Award, established in 1986, offers long-term funding to exceptional researchers who have demonstrated outstanding research competence and productivity and are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Researchers cannot apply directly for the award — potential recipients are identified by program officials for nomination and approved by the NIH Council.

The Meng Lab will receive about $2 million over the next five years with the opportunity to seek approval to renew without undergoing regular peer review for five subsequent years for up to $2.4 million, as the lab continues its cutting-edge research on hepatitis E virus.  

Knowing more about hepatitis E 

Meng will use the MERIT award to investigate how the hepatitis E virus causes diseases in liver and non-liver tissues, such as hepatitis E virus-associated neurological sequelae and chronic hepatitis, and severe adverse disease outcomes during pregnancy. The ultimate goals are to understand the fundamentals of the hepatitis E disease process and develop effective therapeutic countermeasures, including antiviral drugs and vaccines.

“This MERIT Award is also a recognition and reflection of many current and past members of my lab for their contributions to our research program,” said Meng. “I am also grateful for having many fantastic faculty collaborators over the years at Virginia Tech and beyond.”

Hepatitis E virus is an important but extremely understudied human pathogen, causing both acute and chronic hepatitis. In addition to humans, hepatitis E virus also infects more than a dozen other animal species and is a recognized zoonotic pathogen. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 20 million HEV infections occur each year, leading to more than 3.3 million cases of hepatitis and over 44,000 deaths annually.  

One of about 15 nationally

The award is very selective, as only about 15 MERIT Awards are issued annually from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which has continuously funded Meng’s research for more than 24 years.  

“X.J. Meng’s influential scholarship in applied virology is so very deserving of this rare and highly prestigious award,” said M. Daniel Givens, dean of the veterinary college. “His academic citizenship and consistent demonstration of scientific expertise unquestionably merit the NIH’s assessment of highest likelihood for continued performance of outstanding research activities.”

Meng’s recent NIH R01 grant applications have been scored well during peer review, scoring in the top 3 percentile in 2013 and top 4 percentile in 2019. His most recent NIH R01 grant in 2023 received a rare perfect score of 10 and scored in the top 1 percentile, which prompted a MERIT Award nomination by NIH officials. 

This stable NIH funding will enable Meng, also a professor of internal medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, to focus more time and effort on research and less on seeking funding.

“This is important, as many scientists spend tremendous amounts of time on writing grant proposals and going through the peer review process,” said Meng, the founding director of the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens at the Fralin Life Science Institute. “I can now focus more of my time on the actual research projects. I can help students and postdocs more in tackling the scientific problems instead of worrying about writing a grant proposal to go through a peer review process, knowing that we do have long-term support. That also frees me and my time to do some other things, such as serving my profession and the scientific community.”   

Meng’s distinguished career  

Meng serves as a member of the World Health Organization’s Prioritization Advisory Committee, chairing a subcommittee, as that organization prioritizes pathogens of epidemic and pandemic significance. He also serves on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Joint Expert Panel on Microbiological Risk Assessment of microorganisms in foods. Meng chairs the National Academy of Sciences’ Veterinary and Wildlife Sciences and Health Discipline, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. 

The Meng lab has developed commercial vaccines against emerging viruses. The team invented the first U.S. Department of Agriculture fully-licensed commercial vaccine against a deadly pig virus – porcine circovirus type 2. This commercial vaccine, first released in 2006, is still on the global market. As an inventor of more than 20 U.S. patents, Meng was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. 

Meng has received many other prestigious awards and honors, including being an elected Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology, an elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, recipient of the 2017 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award, and recipient of the Virginia Tech Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation in 2023. Meng currently serves as editor or editor-in-chief for four international journals.

After completing his Ph.D. in immunobiology at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Meng worked in the NIH’s Laboratory of Infectious Diseases from 1995 to 1999, first as a John E. Fogarty Visiting Scientist, and then as a Senior Staff Fellow. Meng joined Virginia Tech in 1999 as an assistant professor in molecular biology in the veterinary college.  

In addition to his extensive research and service in various national and international committees and organizations, Meng has held several leadership positions at Virginia Tech, including director of the DVM/Ph.D. dual degree graduate program; director of the NIH T32 Post-DVM training program; and interim executive director of the Fralin Life Science Institute.