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Sequencing

Hidden Zika outbreak figure 3Data

Hidden Zika outbreak

Summary: Using local and travel-associated case reporting from American and European public health systems, we identified an unreported Zika outbreak in Cuba during 2017. Virus sequencing from travelers revealed that the Zika outbreak in Cuba was sparked by multiple introductions of the virus from elsewhere in the Caribbean and Central America during 2016 that persisted into 2017. The recent Zika virus…
July 3, 2018
Pandemics: Focus on surveillance holmes nature commentaryPublications

Pandemics: Focus on surveillance

Over the past 15 years, outbreaks caused by viruses such as Ebola, SARS, and Zika have cost governments billions of US dollars. Combined with a perception among scientists, health workers and citizens that responses to outbreaks have been inadequate, this has fueled what seems like a compelling idea. Namely, that if researchers can identify the next pandemic virus before the…
June 11, 2018
Zika papers in Nature 2017-Nature-celebrationPublications

Zika papers in Nature

In a series of papers in the journals Nature and Nature Protocols, we used Zika virus sequencing from patients and mosquitos to show how the virus has spread across South America and into Florida. This work was performed as a large (huge!) collaboration of national and international institutions, which was made possible because of open science and open data.
May 25, 2017
Ebola paper in Cell 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
Review on Ebola evolution in Nature 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.
October 12, 2016
Zika sequences from Miami mosquitoes 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.
September 10, 2016
Zika sequence from local Florida transmission 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