At the Andersen Lab at Scripps Research we try to understand questions such as: how do viruses emerge, spread, evolve, and go from causing small-scale outbreaks to large-scale epidemics? How can we diagnose them better and discover novel ones? How do they develop resistance to countermeasures and what molecular and immunological factors govern the underlying mechanisms? Critically, by addressing these questions, can we develop new and effective vaccines and medicines, while informing outbreak responses? The research in our laboratory is aimed at tackling these questions using an integrated approach of computation, experimentation, genomics, and large-scale data analysis. We also more broadly employ quantitative approaches across scientific disciplines, ranging from microbiology to human immunology and genetics.
The Andersen Laboratory was established at Scripps Research in the summer of 2015 in beautiful La Jolla, California. We are strong proponents of open data and open science, and we are big believers in collaborating across scientific disciplines. To this end, we are actively engaged in several of our research initiatives, including the Global Health Initiative at Scripps Research, the Center for Viral Systems Biology, the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium, the West African Research Network for Infectious Diseases, and the WestNile 4K Project.
Ready to learn more about the lab? Check out the people working here, our research, publications, and data.
COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 Resources
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly escalating emergency. To gain insights into the emergence, spread, transmission, and evolution of the virus, we are working with a large number of public health agencies, hospitals, biotechs, and academic partners. With funding from the CDC and NIH, we are sequencing hundreds of samples a week and all the data are made publicly available every week.
In response to the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2, we have made several visualization tools to make the genomic data more useful to the public, scientists, and outbreak responders. Some of our primary tools include:
Lineage reports (e.g., B.1.1.7/Alpha, B.1.351/Beta, P.1/Gamma, B.1.617.2/Delta, etc.): https://outbreak.info/situation-reports
Location specific lineage reports, e.g., San Diego: https://outbreak.info/location-reports?loc=USA_US-CA_06073
Sequencing Dashboard visualizing the results from our sequencing efforts: https://searchcovid.info/sequencing-statistics/
More broadly speaking, we have made outbreak.info a go-to source for epi data, resources, and variant reports. The reports are updated four times daily where we download and reanalyze the entire genomic dataset on GISAID – which is now more than a million SARS-CoV-2 genomes.
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SARS-CoV-2 early epidemic study out in Cell
Our study investigating one of the most explosive early COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States has been published in Cell. The emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S. went largely undetected due to inadequate testing. New Orleans experienced one of the earliest and fastest accelerating outbreaks, coinciding with Mardi Gras. To gain insight into the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in…
Ebola relapse study out in NEJM
Our study investigating a rare case of Ebola relapse has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Together with our colleagues at INDR in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and several other institutions, we investigated a case of a vaccinated man who had already been sick with Ebola fell ill with…
Study on B.1.1.7 out in Cell
Our study investigating the spread of the B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant first discovered in the UK has been published in the journal Cell. Together with our colleagues at the San Diego-based company Helix, we used testing data, genomics, and modeling to answer two simple questions - when was B.1.1.7 introduced into the US and how is it currently spreading in this country?…