Cell abstractPublications

Ebola paper in Cell

In a recent study published in Cell together with colleagues from UMass Worcester and the Broad, we show how a single mutation that occurred during the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa increased the ability of the virus to infect human cells. The mutation occurred in the Ebola virus glycoprotein and is located in the receptor binding domain of…
November 22, 2016
Nature paperPublications

Review on Ebola evolution in Nature

The 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa was of unprecedented size and devastation, but also stands a landmark for infectious disease genomics. By sequencing virus genomes directly from patient samples, scientists are now able to investigate how viruses evolve, transmit between individuals, and spread across country borders during outbreaks, directly informing infection control. (more…)
October 12, 2016
DataNews

Zika sequences from Miami mosquitoes

Data here. Protocol here. Three pools of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes collected in Miami Beach on August 22nd and 23rd, 2016, were found to be infected with Zika virus. Through our collaborators, Scott Michael and Sharon Isern from Florida Gulf Coast University, we recently received samples of these mosquitoes for sequencing using our amplicon-based protocol for MiSeq. (more…)
September 10, 2016
DataNews

Zika sequence from local Florida transmission

Data here. Protocol here. In collaboration with Dr. Diogo Magnani in the Watkins Laboratory in the Dept. of Pathology at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, we recently received plasma and saliva from two people with Zika virus infections living in the Miami area. Using our amplicon-based approach previously used to sequence Zika virus from travel-related Zika virus cases in…
September 7, 2016
DataProtocols

Travel-related Zika cases in Florida

Figure 1. Coverage plots of the included samples. Data here. Protocol here. In a collaboration with Scott Michael and Sharon Isern from Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida Department of Health, we have recently received several travel-related cases detected across Florida. We have now managed to sequence Zika virus genomes from three of these case and the data and analyses can be accessed here. (more…)
August 30, 2016
DataProtocols

MiSeq protocol for Zika virus sequencing

Amplicon-based protocol for Zika virus sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq The protocol can be found here. Figure 1. Sequencing coverage of the Zika virus genome. Zika virus strain PRVABC59 spiked with Hela RNA was PCR amplified using 70 virus-specific primers in two reactions, prepared for sequencing using the Kapa Hyper prep kit, and sequenced using the MiSeq v2 500 cycle…
August 26, 2016
ratesPublications

Flawed Ebola study in Science

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.  (more…)
August 12, 2016
NewsPublications

Navigating the Zika panic

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,…
August 4, 2016