Amplicon-based protocol for Zika virus sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq The protocol can be found here. Sequencing Zika virus from the ongoing epidemic in the Americas is of critical importance. Data from the viral genome will help us determine how the virus is spreading, changes to viral population sizes, and if the virus is adapting to local conditions.
In a technical comment in Science, we show how a study published in 2015 by Hoenen, Feldmann, and others was based on faulty analyzes and a misunderstanding of the findings. The original article by the authors, as well as a later published erratum, failed to account for significant data analysis errors performed by Hoenen and colleagues.
The epidemics of Ebola virus in West Africa and Zika virus in America highlight how viruses can explosively emerge into new territories. These epidemics also exposed how unprepared we are to handle infectious disease emergencies. This is also true when we consider hypothesized new clinical features of infection, such as the associations between Zika virus infection and severe neurological disease,…
We have now received several hundred de-identified clinical samples from the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Unfortunately, they all have extremely low viral lows (Ct values > 38 in the few that are positive), so we’re continuing our technology development. We are following a couple of different strategies:
Infectious disease outbreaks continue to pose challenges to global health and security, prompting reactive countermeasures. Recently, severe outbreaks of Ebola and Zika virus were designated by the World Health Organization as “Public Health Emergencies of International Concern.” Other emerging viral pathogens have warranted similar attention, including virus outbreaks from Lassa, Chikungunya, avian influenza, Nipah, SARS, and MERS.
We recently received plasma samples from Zika virus (ZIKV) patients in Colombia. We performed QC on the samples and unfortunately very few had detectable levels of ZIKV by qPCR. We extracted RNA from two of these patient samples (Z184 and Z186), as well as a positive control (seed stock of the Malaysian strain P6-740 passaged once on BHK-21 cells) kindly…
The leading Danish newspaper Politiken had a feature on our work in the September 20th 2015 Sunday section. The article discusses our past and ongoing work with Lassa and Ebola. The full feature describes how we have investigated both Lassa and Ebola virus evolution based on our most recent papers in Cell and Science.
In a large multi-disciplinary collaboration between partners in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, USA, and Europe, we have published our first study on Lassa virus evolution. The paper – which appears on the front page of the August issue of Cell – is the result of seven years of work on Lassa fever across West Africa.
