Dr. Emma Roberts: Understand the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases in Complex Multi-Host Communities
Summary
Most zoonoses and pathogenic agents (e.g. viral, bacterial, parasites) originate as a product of animal spillover into the human population. Pathogenetic agents that can be transmitted between different host species are of fundamental interest and importance from not only a public health perspective, but also conservation and economic perspectives. However, methods for wide-scale, systematic detection of such agents can be expensive and require substantial investment in terms of investigative and laboratory time. There is clearly an immediate necessity to understand the dynamics of infectious diseases in complex multi-host communities in order to discover and prepare for emerging disease threats to public health, livestock economies, [...]
Summary
Most zoonoses and pathogenic agents (e.g. viral, bacterial, parasites) originate as a product of animal spillover into the human population. Pathogenetic agents that can be transmitted between different host species are of fundamental interest and importance from not only a public health perspective, but also conservation and economic perspectives. However, methods for wide-scale, systematic detection of such agents can be expensive and require substantial investment in terms of investigative and laboratory time. There is clearly an immediate necessity to understand the dynamics of infectious diseases in complex multi-host communities in order to discover and prepare for emerging disease threats to public health, livestock economies, and wildlife species. We will perform a comprehensive multi-approach surveillance scheme which includes a. Sample host species (obtain tissue samples), survey a variety of ecosystems (e.g., habitats) across the southwestern U.S., survey across a temporal gradient including specimens collected and archived in the Natural Science Research Laboratory, Museum of Texas Tech University over the last 40 years and contemporary specimens collected as described above. In order to detect the greatest number of zoonotic and pathogenic agents, we will examine as many host taxa as possible, including wild, feral, and peri-domestic taxa. a. Employ a host-depletion NextGen sequencing approach in which all zoonoses detected in the host tissue samples will be systematically identified and experimentally quantified. Essentially this method masks the host genome and amplifies all non-self entities (e.g., viruses, bacteria, parasites). This aim allows for the detection of any known, and perhaps more importantly, unknown zoonotic and pathogenic agents that may exist in a particular region.
