Despite the existence of a preventive vaccine, chronic infections with Hepatitis B virus (HBV) remain a major health problem worldwide, and represent the first cause of liver cancer. Current clinically accepted antivirals treatments generally lead to a significant reduction of viremia in the blood of patients. However, the liver viral clearance is rarely obtained, thus making life-long therapy mandatory. Several arguments suggest that, among the viral factors, the HBV core protein (HBc) may possess important regulatory activities that control the establishment and persistence of the infection. Our major aims are:

• To identify HBc cellular binding partners,
• To characterize the modulation of the phosphorylation status of selected proteins during HBV infection.